PAPA6254 - RESEARCH METHODS WORKSHOP

School of Public & International Affairs

Dr. Matthew Dull

Office: 703-706-8117
Cell: 202-821-3807

Email: mdull@vt.edu

Description
This intermediate quantitative and qualitative empirical methods workshop focuses on the design and execution of an original research project. Over the course of the semester participants will develop an empirical paper or research design on a topic in public policy or public administration. Coursework consists of the following elements:

1) A 1-page draft research proposal circulated to course participants via Blackboard on or before Monday 1/28 and a revised research proposal posted on or before Monday 2/11;
2) Facilitation of one class session around a specific research method or model, selecting the topic and readings in consultation with the course instructor;
3) A short annotated bibliography reviewing examples of research applying the method or model the participant has selected, distributed via Blackboard on the Monday prior to the class the participant facilitates;
4) Draft research designs due Monday 3/17 and Monday 4/14;
5) Final empirical paper or research design posted to Blackboard on or before Sunday 5/4;
6) Finally, course participants are expected to play an active role in the course, offering feedback and helping to shape one another’s projects.

In general, readings will be made available in electronic format on Blackboard. However, below are a handful of books we will be reading more or less in full. I recommend you obtain hard copies:

• Martha S. Feldman, 1989. Order without design: information production and policy making. Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press.
• Martha S. Feldman, 1995. Strategies for Interpreting Qualitative Data. Sage.
• Laura Jensen, 2003. Patriots, Settlers, and the Origins of American Social Policy. Cambridge.
• Jane E. Miller, 2005. The Chicago guide to writing about multivariate analysis. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 0226527832. (Paperback)
• Edward R. Tufte, 2001. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Graphics Press.

Prerequisites for the course are PAPA 6514 or equivalent and familiarity with concepts covered in a standard introductory statistics course. Students are encouraged to contact with the instructor with any questions regarding prerequisites or the appropriateness of the course for their needs. If you have not recently taken a statistics course, it is strongly recommended that you review a basic statistics text. One text that is clear and available used online is: Robert M. Kaplan, 1986. Basic Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. Allyn and Bacon, Inc.

Course Schedule – Getting Started
1. Course Introduction (1/17)
Please read the following two articles prior to our first meeting:

• Joe Soss. 1999. “Lessons of Welfare: Policy Design, Political Learning, and Political Action.” American Political Science Review. 93(2): 363-80.
• R. K. Rethemeyer. 2007. “Policymaking in the Age of Internet: Is the Internet Tending to Make Policy Networks More or Less Inclusive?” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. 17: 259-284.

Recommended

• Herbert M. Kritzer, 1996. "The Data Puzzle: The Nature of Interpretation in Quantitative Research." American Journal of Political Science 40(1): 1-32.
• Joe Soss and Sanford F. Schram. 2007. “A Public Transformed? Policy Reform as Policy Feedback. “ American Political Science Review.
• Suzanne Mettler, 2002. “Bringing the State Back in to Civic Engagement: Policy Feedback Effects of the G.I. Bill for World War II Veterans.” The American Political Science Review 96(2): 351-365.
• Mark Granovetter. 2005.” The Impact of Social Structure on Economic Outcomes.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 19, No. 1.Winter, pp. 33-50.

2. Representing Data (1/24)

• Miller, 1-4. Chava Frankfort-Nachmias and David Nachmias, 2000. “Measurement,” (Ch. 7) Research Methods in the Social Sciences.
• Edward Tufte, 2001. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Ch. 1, 4-6, 8-9
• Jonathan P. Kastellec and Eduardo L. Leoni. 2007. “Using Graphs Instead of Tables in Political Science.” Perspectives on Politics.

Recommended

• Theodore M. Porter, 1995. Trust in numbers: the pursuit of objectivity in science and public life. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
• Robert Adcock and David Collier. 2001. “Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for Qualitative and Quantitative Research.” American Political Science Review. 95: 529-46.
• Gelman, Pasarica, Dodhia. 2002. “Let’s Practice What We Preach: Turning Tables Into Graphics,” The American Statistician.

3. Modeling Missing Data (1/31)

• P. D. Allison. 2001. Missing data. Thousand Oaks, Calif., Sage Publications. Ch. 1-4.
• M. Dull. Results-Model Reform Leadership: Questions of Credibility and Commitment. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. Forthcoming.

4. Choice-based Models

• Kris Wernstedt, Peter B. Meyer, Anna Alberini. Attracting private investment to contaminated properties: The value of public interventions. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Volume 25, Issue 2, Date: Spring 2006, Pages: 247-369.
• Bryan Jones and Frank Baumgartner, 2005. “A Model of Choice in Public Policy.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
• Gerd Gigerenzer, 1991. "From Tools to Theories: A Heuristic of Discovery in Cognitive Psychology." Psychological Review 98: 254-267.

Recommended

• Paul R. Portney, 1994. “The Contingent Valuation Debate: Why Economists Should Care,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 8:4.
• T.H. Stevens, R. Belkner, D. Dennis, D. Kittredge, C. Willis. 2007. “Comparison of contingent valuation and conjoint analysis in ecosystem management.”
• Felix Schläpfer. 2007. “Contingent Valuation: A New Perspective,” Ecological Economics.
• Gerald F. Smith, 1995. “Classifying Managerial Problems: An Empirical Study of Definitional Content,” Journal of Management Studies, 32:5. September.
• John Conlisk, 2005. “Why Bounded Rationality,” Journal of Economic Literature.
• Joel M. Podolny. 199). "A Status-Based Model of Market Competition." The American Journal of Sociology 98(4): 829-872.

5. Strategies for Interpreting Qualitative Data:

• Martha Feldman Martha S. Feldman, 1995. Strategies for Interpreting Qualitative Data. Sage.
• Martha S. Feldman, 1989. Order without design: information production and policy making. Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press.
• Martha S. Feldman, 2000. “Organizational Routines as a Source of Continuous Change,” Organization Science 11(6): 611-629.

Recommended

• Kaufman, H. (1960). The forest ranger, a study in administrative behavior. Baltimore,, Published for Resources for the Future by Johns Hopkins Press.
• Derthick, M. (1990). Agency under stress : the Social Security Administration in American government. Washington, D.C., Brookings Institution.

6. Narratives

• Kathe Callahan, Melvin J . Dubnick, and Dorothy Olshfski. 2006. “War Narratives: Framing Our Understanding of the War on Terror,” Public Administration Review. July/August.
• Malcolm Gladwell, 2007. “Dangerous Minds,” The New Yorker. Ospina, S. M. and J. Dodge (2005). It’s About Time: Catching Method Up to Meaning; The Usefulness of Narrative Inquiry in Public Administration Research. 65: 143-157.
• Dodge, J., S. M. Ospina, et al. (2005). Integrating Rigor and Relevance in Public Administration Scholarship: The Contribution of Narrative Inquiry. 65: 286-300.
• Ospina, S. M. and J. Dodge (2005). Narrative Inquiry and the Search for Connectedness: Practitioners and Academics Developing Public Administration Scholarship. 65: 409-423.

7. Interpreting History: Archival Data

• Laura Jensen, 2003. Patriots, Settlers, and the Origins of American Social Policy. Cambridge.

Recommended

• Fred I. Greenstein, The Hidden Hand Presidency. Johns Hopkins.
• D. Carpenter, 2001. The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy. Princeton.
• Paul Pierson, 1994. Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher and the Politics of Retrenchment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Published by admin on September 26 of 2008