Quantitative Methods

Quantitative Methods: You couldn't escape if you wanted to.

The aim of the course is to provide the students with basic knowledge about quantitative methods in the social sciences, though the topical focus will privilege applications in economic history and international relations. The course will cover both descriptive statistics (i.e. summarizing and visualizing information) and inferential statistics (i.e. making statements about a population based on a sample of it). The major methodological focus will be ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, the basic workhorse of applied quantitative methods, though the course will take care to discuss matters of quantitative research design more broadly. Upon completion of the course, students should be able to read, interpret and assess quantitative research at a fundamental level. The class will serve as foundation training for a student's ability to design and perform a quantitative study, e.g., write a master thesis using quantitative methods.