950803: Quantitative Research Method for Public Policy

Pairach Pibonrungroj, PhD

Semester 1, 2019

E-mail: pairach.p@cmu.ac.th Web: www.pairach.com

Office Hours: Monday 8:30-9:30am Class Hours: Mon/Tue 9:00-12:00
Office: Associate Dean Office, Faculty of Economics Class Room: NSP306

Course Description
The role of quantitative analysis in public policy analysis and evaluation; quantitative research
design; data collection and measurement; data description, descriptive statistics, measures of
dispersion; probability, different quantitative techniques, introduction to statistical inference; hy-
pothesis testing, null hypothesis, logic of testing, sample t test; cross-tabulation, comparisons
of group means, chi-squared statistics; correlation and its usefulness; regression, bivariate re-
gression, assumptions of regression analysis; and empirical policy analysis, structural equation
model (SEM).

Required Materials
• Jenkins-Smith, H.C. et al. (2017) “Quantitative Research Methods for Political Science,
Public Policy and Public Administration: With Applications in R" 3rd Edition. University
Libraries, The University of Oklahoma.

Course Objectives
Successful students are able to:
1. understand the philosophy of statistics.
2. describe quantitative data.
3. develop research hypotheses and research model.
4. manage quantitative data for public policy research.
5. conduct multivariate statistics techniques with R programming.
6. discuss results from multivariate statistics analysis.

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Course Structure
Class Structure
The class will be conducted as a research workshop including lecture and computer session.
Students are expected to bring their computer laptop to the class. Computers shall be installed
with R and R Studio programme. The instruction to install R and R Studio will be given in the
first class.

Assessments
• Midterm report (40%): A multiple regression model testing public policy data of student’s
interest (A World bank data is suggested). A descriptive analysis as well as discussion of
data and regression results shall be included. A report should be no more than 4,000 words.
(Due date: 8th November 2019).

• Final report (40%): A structural equation model using public policy data (World Bank). A
model shall be an extension of the multiple regression in the midterm report. Rationales of
the model and statistical results shall be discussed. A report should be no more than 4,000
words. (Due date: 9th December 2019).

• Reflective report (20%) A summary of the learning from the lecture, workshop and assign-
ments/reports. Reflections of the learning should be discussed in relation to student’s PhD
thesis/proposal. A report should be no more than 2,000 words. (Due date: 9th December
2019).

Submission:
A printed version (hard copy) of assignment shall be submitted to SPP office (Khun Cherry). A
pdf and doc files shall be emailed to pairach.p@cmu.ac.th before midnight of the due date.
Note: An assessment rubric will be discussed in the class.

Grading Rubric
Each part will give 20% to midterm and final reports.

• Provide sound rationale on the problem set and relation to statistic techniques used in the
report.

• Hypothesis testing and research model construction

• Statistic analysis techniques implementation

• Results discussions and insights to the findings

• Integration to public policy theory/concept

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Course Policies
During Class
Since we will learn about quantitative research methods, then you shall bring your computer to
the class.

Attendance Policy
Students are responsible to attend the class including make-up class.

Policies on Incomplete Grades and Late Assignments

Late assignments will be accepted for no penalty if a valid excuse is communicated to the instruc-
tor before the deadline. After the deadline, assignments will be accepted for a 50% deduction to
the score up to 2 days after the deadline. After this any assignments handed in will be given 0.

Academic Integrity and Honesty

Plagiarism will be penalised as zero for a particular report.

Schedule and topics

Class times are between 9:30 - 12:30 hr with a break around 10:45 - 11:00 hr.
1. Mon 19th August: Class orientation / get to know student background and research interest
2. Mon 2nd September: Introduction to quantitative research methods
3. Tue 17th September: Introduction to R programming
4. Tue 1st October: Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) 1
5. Mon 7th October: Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) 2
6. Tue 8th October: Simple Regression Analysis (SRA) 1
7. Tue 15th October: Simple Regression Analysis (SRA) 2
8. Mon 28th October: Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) 1
9. Tue 29th October: Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) 2
10. Mon 4th November: Generalised Linear Model (GLM) 1
11. Tue 5th November: Generalised Linear Model (GLM)2
12. Mon 11th November: Structural Equation Model (SEM) 1
13. Tue 12th November: Structural Equation Model (SEM) 2
14. Mon 18th November: Structural Equation Model (SEM) 3
15. Tue 19th November: Revisions and conclusions

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