Training for Policy Analysts and Program Evaluation

Many of our workshops cover material that is particularly relevant for those interested in examining important societal problems and conducting evaluations of policy impacts. A few 3- to 5-day workshops of interest include:

Regression Discontinuity Designs
DATES & TIME: June 15-17, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTORS: Matias Cattaneo, University of Michigan, and Rocio Titiunik, University of Michigan
DESCRIPTION: Regression discontinuity designs are some of the most useful and potent research designs for evaluating program impacts, policy issues, and societal problems. This workshop covers the basic principles, estimation, and interpretation of regression discontinuity designs, as well as their applicability across a broad array of substantive areas.
FEES: ICPSR Member fees = $1300; Non-member fees = $2600

Dynamic Models for Policy, Economics, and Society: Practical Time Series Methods

Image credit: Harold D. Clarke

DATES & TIME: July 20-24, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTOR: Harold D. Clarke, University of Texas at Dallas
DESCRIPTION: The course has an applied focus, and participants will learn how to specify, estimate, and evaluate multivariate time series models within their substantive fields of interest. Methods considered will be helpful to graduate students, faculty, and staff in the social sciences as well as policy analysts and other researchers working in the public and private sectors.
FEES: ICPSR Member fees = $1500; Non-member fees = $3000

Designing and Conducting Experiments in the Laboratory
DATES & TIME: June 22-26, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTORS: Rick Wilson, Rice University, and Catherine Eckel, Texas A&M University
DESCRIPTION: This workshop introduces participants to basic research design considerations, the problems of inference for incomplete designs (particularly field experiments), and canonical games common in experimental economics. To learn about experiments, there is no substitute for doing. So, participants will work in four- to six-person groups to design experiments that will be run during the workshop.
FEES: ICPSR Member fees = $1500; Non-member fees = $3000

Causal Inference in Cross-Sectional Data, Survival-Time Data, and Panel Data Using Stata
DATES & TIME: July 13-17, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTOR: David Drukker, Stata Corporation
DESCRIPTION: This workshop provides an introduction to causal inference for cross-sectional data, survival-time data, and panel data. It uses a combination of intuition, mathematics, and computational examples to illustrate what causal inference parameters measure and how we estimate them using Stata.
FEES: ICPSR Member fees = $1500; Non-member fees = $3000

Text Analytics
DATES & TIME: August 3-6, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTOR: Robert Stine, University of Pennsylvania
DESCRIPTION: Statistical methods for the analysis of textual data have come of age. We can mine textual data for underlying sentiments, scan for hateful or discriminatory language, or create features that improve familiar predictive models. This workshop explores how various text analytics can be understood, used, and developed by non-specialists in the field. This workshop runs for 4 nights.
FEES: ICPSR Member fees = $1200; Non-member fees = $2400. (In addition, special fees apply for participants who attend either of the two 2015 regular 4-week sessions of the Summer Program.)

Network Analysis: An Introduction
DATES & TIME: June 1-5, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTOR: Ann McCranie, Indiana University
DESCRIPTION: This one week intensive workshop presents an introduction to various concepts, methods, and applications of social network analysis. The primary focus is on the analysis of relational data measured on groups of actors as they interact across geographic, economic, social, and political contexts.
FEES: ICPSR Member fees = $1500; Non-member fees = $3000

Time Series Analysis: An Introduction for Social Scientists 
DATES & TIME: July 13-17, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
LOCATION: Ann Arbor, MI
INSTRUCTOR: Mark Pickup, Simon Fraser University and the University of Oxford
DESCRIPTION: Statistical models can be applied to a broad array of time series data in order to examine the movement of variables over time (e.g., government policy, public opinion, administrative decisions, socioeconomic measures). This course introduces time series methods that allow analysts to estimate relationships between variables and test hypotheses using dynamic, realistic models of important processes.
FEES: ICPSR Member fees = $1500; Non-member fees = $3000