ARHIV DRUŽBOSLOVNIH PODATKOV

Applied Panel Data Analysis course by Josef Brüderl (University of Mannheim) and Crash Course.

One of the main problems of non-experimental social research is unobserved heterogeneity. With cross-sectional data the source of the problem is that you compare different persons, who might differ in many characteristics besides the variable of interest. If some of these characteristics are unobserved, conclusion may be heavily biased. With cross-sectional data there is no way to tackle this problem. With panel data, however, it might be possible to overcome this problem by comparing the same persons over time. Not all panel regression models capitalize on this advantage. This course will discuss the nature of the problem and introduce models which can avoid the problem of unobserved heterogeneity with panel data.
The course will focus on practical applications of the methods, showing the basic ideas and using formulas only to show the basic model structure.

The Crash Course in Stata will present the basics of the Stata statistical package. Stata is a full data management program with excellent statistical and graphical capabilities. Stata is one of the most frequently used statistical packages in the social sciences. For more information about Stata, visit www.stata.com.
Steve Fisher is University Lecturer in Political Sociology and Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford University. His research interests include electoral behaviour and social attitudes, especially tactical voting, turnout and contextual effects.
The courses will be taught at the Department of Politics and International Relations, Manor Road Building, Oxford.

Registration is open to participants from institutions that are members of the Equalsoc Network of Excellence (http://www.equalsoc.org/2) as well as participants from members of all other institutions. A maximum of thirty places will be funded by EQUALSOC for members of its institutions and these places are therefore reserved. Applications from participants from institutions that are not members of EQUALSOC for the remaining places are welcome (there will be at least fifteen such places).

Registration will close at noon, Monday 18th May 2009. (http://springschool.politics.ox.ac.uk/registration/registration.asp?course=equalsoc)