Masters of Public Policy

MPP 806

Research Techniques and Quantitative Methods

 

Course Homepage

 Kevin Wainwright
Burnaby:
Office:3689 West Mall
Email:wainwrig@sfu.ca
 
   

Description

This course will spend some time on reviewing and strengthening your basic math skills. The first part of the course will focus on algebra, functions and the basics of constructing and interpreting graphs. The will be an overview of nonlinear functions and a discussion of simple calculus; how and why it is used- however, this will not be a calculus course.

the second part of the course will combine the basics of statistics (mean, varience, distributions) with developing better excel skills. Besides learning to manipulate data in excel, students will be shown tools useful in preparing reports and presentations. this will include charts, plots, data filters and tricks for inserting data into Word documents and Power Point slides.

Format

  Final Term Project  

Instructions

Data File

Data File (older Formats of excel)

Class Schedule (subject to change)

Week Lecture topics (HC 3000) Excel (HC 7000) Jacques Additional notes
1
 Introduction  
2
 Linear Equations 1 Lesson 1 1.1, 1.2, 1.3  
3
 Linear Equations 2 Lesson 2 1.4, 1.5, 1.6 Factoring practice
4
 Non-linear Equations Lesson 3 2.1-2.4 Macro Simulator: HW notes and Excel file
5
 Percents, Finance & Calculus 1 Lesson 4 3.1, 3.2 4.1,4.2 (Answer Key for Macro Simulator )
6
 Calculus 2 4.3-4.6  
7
 Midterm  
Lecture topics (HC 3000) Freedman, Pisani & Purves
8
 Descriptive Statistics Lesson 5 Ch 3 FPP  
9
 Stnd. Dev. and Normal distributions Lesson 6 Ch4-5  
10
 Correlation Lesson 7 Ch 8-9  
11
 Regression Lesson 8 Ch 10-11  
12
 Tests of Significance Ch 26-28  
13
 Sampling and Hypothesis testing Ch 19-23  
14
 Catch up and Review  

Problem Sets

Problem Set Answer Keys

Linear Equation Systems

  1. Linear equations 1
  2. Linear equations 2
  3. Linear equations 3
  4. Linear Systems 1
  5. Linear Systems 2

Nonlinear Equation Systems

  1. Quadratic Equations 1

Single Variable Calculus

  1. Power Function, Sum-difference, and Product Rules

Optimization

  1. Applied Max and Min Problems

Linear Equation Systems

  1. Linear equations 1
  2. Linear equations 2
  3. Linear equations 3
  4. Linear Systems 1
  5. Linear Systems 2

Nonlinear Equation Systems

  1. Quadratic Equations 1

Single Variable Calculus

  1. Power Function, Sum-difference, and Product Rules

Optimization

  1. Applied Max and Min Problems

 
Notes and Handouts Statistics Lecture Notes & Readings

One Variable Calculus

  1. First 5 Rules
  2. Full set of calculus notes
  3. Addional calculus topics (Optional!)

Math Notes for Economics

 

The following sections are condenced readings on the basics of statistics and empirical techniques for social science

  • Part One: Statistical measures
  • Part Two:  Basic Probability Theory
  • Part Three: Sampling and Estimation
  • Part Four: Hypothesis Testing and Regression

Statistics and Excel

Lab Assignment 1 (Nov 18)

  • Summary Stats and Histograms
  • Excel File and Instructions (PDF)

Lab Assignment 2 (Nov 25)

Lab Assignment 3 (Dec 2)

  • The basics of Pivot Tables
  • Instructions for creating a Pivot Table

 
EXCEL TUTORIALS
This page contains Hands On Exercises and EXCEL files that cover topics that are frequently needed for  projects. In some cases there will be techniques that are new to you, and others may simply be a review.

LESSON ONE:CHARTING data
CHARTING Tutorial Lesson One EXCEL FILE

LESSON TWO:FILTERING data
Filtering Tutorial Lesson Two  EXCEL FILE

LESSON THREE:Elasticity and Growth Rates (natural Logarithms)
 Elasticity  Tutorial   Lesson three EXCEL FILE

LESSON FOUR:PARSING (seperating columns) and CONCATENATING (combining columns)
 PARSING  Tutorial CONCATENATE Tutorial   Lesson Four EXCEL FILE

LESSON FIVE:WORKING WITH LARGE SPEADSHEETS data Shortcut Keys, cool tricks to select, copy, fill columns, using formulas
Large Speadsheet Tutorial #1 Large Speadsheet Tutorial #2 Lesson Five  EXCEL FILE #1 (Test Data.xls) Lesson Five EXCEL FILE #2 (Test Data2.xls)