Northwestern University
MTS 525-0-20
Wednesday 3:00-5:50pm
Location: Technological Institute, M166
Spring, 2015
Professor Aaron Shaw
Office location: Frances Searle Building, room 2-142
Office hours Mon & Wed 1-3pm and by appointment
Links to articles, unpublished manuscripts, and book selections will be provided via this course website or via emails through Canvas.
For the first four weeks of the course we will use Gerber & Green's Field Experiments: Design, Analysis, and Interpretation (or "FEDAI") as our principal source of readings and assignments. I recommend buying a copy.
All assignments should be submitted via the course Canvas site unless specified otherwise. The two larger assignments for the course are the Field Experiment and the final Research Planning Document. You should visit those links for more detail. Links and deadlines are also provided below.
Warning: I may update problem sets and reading assignments up to 1 week before they are due.
Readings
- Gerber & Green, Chapter 1.
- Example Research Planning Documents (distributed in class).
Tasks
- Describe three research questions addressing some causal relationship relevant to your research interests. Write the research questions down for the first class meeting and be prepared to discuss at least one of them.
- Make sure you have a satisfactory setup for statistical computing. If you are working with R, check out my getting started with R page.
- Optional: Attend an Intro to R session that I will lead on Friday, April 3, 2:00pm-4:00pm in Frances Searle 2-378. We'll cover basic data input and manipulation; some operators and mathematical functions; as well as writing loops and simple functions of your own.
Readings
- Gerber & Green, Chapter 2 & Appendix B.
Tasks
- Problem Set 1. [Solutions]
- Complete the required CITI training for human subjects research through the Northwestern IRB.
Readings
- Gerber & Green, Chapter 3.
- Bowers & Panagopoulos, 2012.
Tasks
- Problem Set 2 (data file as csv) [Solutions]
- Complete Field Experiment Assignment 1 (brainstorm & design).
Readings
- Gerber & Green, Chapter 4 (& skim Chapter 9).
- Wantchekon, 2003.
Tasks
Readings
- Gerber & Green, Chapter 13.
- Gelman & Loken, 2013.
- Example planning documents.
Tasks
- Problem Set 4. [Solutions]
- Complete mid-quarter course assessment (distributed in class).
Readings
- Murnane & Willett, Chapters 8 & 12.
- Blattman & Annan, 2010.
Tasks
- Complete Field Experiment Assignment 2 (submit a planning document for your field experiment).
- Read someone else's Field Experiment planning document and prepare to discuss it in class.
- Discuss Mid-quarter evaluation results.
Readings
- Murnane & Willett, Chapter 9.
- Anderson & Magruder, 2012.
- (OPTIONAL) Card & Krueger, 1994, Neumark & Washer, 2000, and Card & Krueger, 2000.
Tasks
- Problem Set 5 (data as a .csv). [Solutions]
Tasks
- Submit all materials for your field experiment (planning document; dataset and reproducible analysis code; research report).
Readings
- Murnane & Willett, Chapters 10-11.
- Dittmar, 2011.
Tasks
- Work on your final project.
Tasks
- Peer evaluation of someone else's field experiment.
- Problem Set 6 (data as an .RData file). [Solutions]
- Download & read through example IVE analysis.
Present a lightning talk on your final project in class.
- No more than 5 minutes (strictly enforced).
- Slides optional (must be sent to Aaron as a PDF by Tues. 5pm).
- No more than 5 minutes!
Submit your final project by 5pm, Central Time via Canvas.
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