STV4032 – Advanced Statistics for Political Science
Course description
Course content
A central task for political scientists is to draw valid causal inferences, which requires both appropriate research designs and careful statistical modeling. This course goes into more depth in both of these areas, enabling students to carry out advanced quantitative research projects. In particular, the course examines key strategies for dealing with unobserved confounders and for modeling complicated data structures. This is an elective course in advanced statistical analysis for MA students in Political science and Peace and conflict studies. It builds on the compulsory methods courses in the master programs for political science and Peace and conflict studies (STV4021, STV4022, PECOS4025?and PECOS4022).
Learning outcome
Knowledge
You will:
- know the preconditions for employing key strategies for drawing causal inferences
- understand key aspects of Bayesian and frequentist inference
Skills
You will learn to:
- employ key research designs for drawing causal inferences with observational data
- fit Bayesian models using Markov chain Monte Carlo approaches
- analyze a variety of data structures using appropriate models
- diagnose and improve advanced quantitative models
Competences
You will:
- be able to carefully assess the strengths and weaknesses of research designs that are intended to capture causal effects
- become more familiar statistical programming and relevant software packages
- be able to carry out a variety of advanced quantitative research projects
Admission to the course
Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester?register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for?in Studentweb.
Students enrolled in other Master's Degree Programmes can, on application, be admitted to the course if this is cleared by their own study programme.
If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about?admission requirements and procedures.
Formal prerequisite knowledge
STV4022 - Anvendt statistikk for statsvitenskap?or?PECOS4022 - ?Applied Statistics for Peace and Conflict Studies?or an equiva