Category Archives: Statistics

But Shouldn’t That Work Against Me?

Posted on May 24, 2019 by

Low power and low prior beliefs make it harder to obtain a positive estimate, but conditional upon obtaining a positive estimate, it’s more likely that we’ve obtained a false positive. So let’s dispense with the work-against-me defense. Continue reading →

Posted in Ask a Methodologist, Replication, Statistics, The Discipline | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Alternative Specification of Interaction Models With a Discrete Modifying Variable

Posted on February 12, 2018 by

Benjamin Ferland¹ Since Brambor, Clark and Golder’s (2006) article in Political Analysis (hereafter BCG), our understanding of interaction models has improved significantly and most empirical scholars have now integrated the tools to execute and interpret interaction models properly. In particular, one … Continue reading →

Posted in Statistics | Leave a comment

Pitfalls when Estimating Treatment Effects Using Clustered Data

Posted on September 18, 2017 by

James G. MacKinnon, Department of Economics, Queen’s University1 Matthew D. Webb, Department of Economics, Carleton University Extended Abstract There is a large and rapidly growing literature on inference with clustered data, that is, data where the disturbances (error terms) are … Continue reading →

Posted in Replication, Statistics | Leave a comment

Understanding Equation Balance in Time Series Regression

Posted on June 23, 2017 by

Peter K. Enns and Christopher Wlezien Abstract: Most contributors to a recent Political Analysis symposium on time series anal­ysis suggest that in order to maintain equation balance, one cannot combine stationary, integrated, and/or fractionally integrated variables with general error correction … Continue reading →

Posted in Statistics | Tagged | 2 Comments

Visualize Dynamic Simulations of Autoregressive Relationships in R

Posted on April 28, 2016 by

by: Christopher Gandrud, Laron K. Williams, and Guy D. Whitten Two recent trends in the social sciences have drastically improved the interpretation of statistical models. The first trend is researchers providing substantively meaningful quantities of interest when interpreting models rather … Continue reading →

Posted in Software, Statistics, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

NAS Workshop: Statistical Challenges in Assessing and Fostering the Reproducibility of Scientific Results

Posted on January 16, 2015 by

On February 26-27, the National Research Council of the National Academies is hosting a workshop of the Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics titled “Statistical Challenges in Assessing and Fostering the Reproducibility of Scientific Results.” The workshop will include presentations and … Continue reading →

Posted in Call for Papers / Conference, Statistics, The Discipline | Leave a comment

Propose to present in the International Methods Colloquium series!

Posted on October 9, 2014 by

Today, I’m pleased to announce that the International Methods Colloquium (IMC) is seeking presenters to fill its inaugural AY 2014/2015 schedule! I believe that the IMC provides a great opportunity for presenters to get their work out to a very large, very … Continue reading →

Posted in Call for Papers / Conference, Statistics | 1 Comment

What does a failed replication really mean? (or, One cheer for Jason Mitchell)

Posted on August 3, 2014 by

A few weeks ago, Jason Mitchell wrote a piece entitled “On the emptiness of failed replications.” Mitchell is a professor in Harvard University’s department of Psychology studying “the cognitive processes that support inferences about the psychological states of other people … Continue reading →

Posted in Replication, Statistics, The Discipline | Leave a comment

Style, Substance, and the Impact on Gender Imbalance in Methods

Posted on March 13, 2014 by

I am really pleased to see that our series on Women in Methodology is already generating some much-needed attention to and discussion of the issues that women face in our subfield! Our two entries in the series have already been … Continue reading →

Posted in Ask a Methodologist, Statistics, The Discipline | Leave a comment

An International Methodology Colloquium?

Posted on January 2, 2014 by

In my experience, one of the toughest things about being a political methodologist is often being the only member of the subfield in the department. It’s not always true, of course, but I think that many departments–even those with highly-ranked PhD programs–have … Continue reading →

Posted in Statistics, The Discipline | Leave a comment