PA 705 / PA 706

Research Methods and Data Analysis I and II

How is research related to public administration? Consider these recent quotes made in various fields of public administration:

• “Only 12 percent of those surveyed -- sinking to 5 percent in San Francisco -- think Schwarzenegger has a great deal of understanding of the Bay Area and its residents, while a third believe he has little or no concern for the region.”[1]
• “Tuition and fees at public colleges soared a record 14 percent this year, continuing a quarter-century trend of higher-education prices rocketing faster than inflation.”[2]
• “The results indicate that California's Three Strikes law will not accelerate the rate of growth of the elderly prison population.”[3]
• “Public policy students, whose training is intended to produce managers, advocates, and analysts for public programs, are increasingly likely to enter private-sector employment upon graduation and less likely than their predecessors to plan long-term careers in government.”[4]

Each of these claims is based on empirical evidence gathered by accepted methods of research. Countless other claims fill journals, government reports, and news media. Increasingly, the management of our government and organizations is driven by knowledge obtained through empirical research. Such knowledge informs important decisions such as: which programs to cut, or which taxes to raise, during a budget crisis; where to focus limited resources; how to alleviate social problems like homelessness; etc. Institutions and entire markets have evolved to meet the demand for such knowledge (e.g., Congressional Research Service, General Accounting Office, Rand Corporation, Brookings Institute, Cato Institute, university research organizations, etc.), and consumers of such knowledge range from world leaders to the general public.

This course reviews our previous training in research methods, builds upon it, and applies it to the context of public administration. In essence, this is a practicum, in which you will hone and apply your research skills toward the production of knowledge relevant to public administration. The emphasis will be on quantitative methods of data collection and analysis because they are ubiquitous in public administration. Indeed, quantitative analysis has become an essential skill of public administrators. However, we will also introduce popular qualitative methods.

Also, the course will devote a significant amount of time to the important managerial skill of critiquing empirical research. Public administrators (and even professors) spend far more time reading research than producing it. We read research to help us make decisions in our jobs. But we must know how to tell “good” research from “bad”. Thus, while we will certainly hone our skills in conducting research, we will also develop ones in judging the research we read.

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[1] Wildermuth, J. (2005, January 13). Locals like governor, trust area legislators. San Francisco Chronicle.

[2] Price, T. (2003). Should Congress penalize schools that raise fees? CQ Researcher, 13(42).

[3] Auerhahn, K. (2002). Selective incapacitation, three strikes, and the problem of aging prison populations: Using simulation modeling to see the future. Criminology and Public Policy, 1(3).

[4] Chetkovich, C. (2003). What's in a sector? The shifting career plans of public policy students. Public Administration Review, 63(6): 660-674.