Descriptive and inferential statistics

Overview

The aim of this module is to give an introduction into the statistical methods of the social and economic sciences, based on the knowledge gained in the lecture course on theory building, research process and data collection methods.

By the end of this module, a student should understand

• which methods are used to analyse the data that are usually available for economists and social scientists,
• which methods can be used for which purposes and which pitfalls they open.

Syllabus and time schedule of the lecture course

1. Univariate Statistics (05/06 [definitely no lecture on 08/06!])
2. Bivariate Statistics, Nominal Data (12-15/06)
3. Bivariate Statistics, Ordinal Data (15-19/06)
4. Bivariate Statistics, Metric Data; Multiple Regression (19/06, 22/06 [no lecture on 26/06 due to a meeting of the Hochschulrat!])
5. Factor Analysis (03/07)
6. Cluster Analysis (06/07)
7. Discriminant Analysis (06/07 [no lecture on 13/07 due to EMIL project meeting!])
8. Summary (10/07, 17/07, 20/07)

Course material

All slides for this course can soon be found here (to be updated).

The statistics discussed in this course is also dealt with in Andreas Engel, Michael Möhring, Klaus G. Troitzsch: Sozialwissenschaftliche Datenanalyse. Mannheim: BI Wissenschaftverlag 1995.

Basic Reading

• Jane Fielding and Nigel Gilbert (2000): Understanding Social Statistics. London: Sage

SPSS

The data analysis software system SPSS is available in all labs using XP:

All Programs -> SPSS for Windows --> SPSS 15.0 for Windows

Additional information on SPSS:

• SPSS Homepage
• SPSS page (University of Cologne)

Data Sets

This data sets will be used in the tutorial

• Eurobarometer 64.4 (Dezember 2005-Januar 2006)
  

  Variable groups:

  • Health: Mental well being (QA)
  • Telecommunication in the household (QB)
  • Internet use and safety (QC)
  • Food and farm animal welfare (QD)
  • Demographic data of the respondents (D)

  Data set descriptions: Eurobarometer 64.4, Eurobarometer 58.2, Eurobarometer 62.1

  Data sets: Eurobarometer 64.4, Eurobarometer 58.2, Eurobarometer 62.1

• Federal election of 2005: Election results and social structure data

Time schedule for the labs