It may also complement online courses that teach specific methods to give more context and explanation. This textbook could be useful for university students in graduate programs as core text in applied statistics and econometrics, quantitative methods, or data analysis. This textbook was written to be a complete course in data analysis.
MORE on data and code Follow your heart! Code is available in major scripting languages! We also share the codes that clean the data and produce all results, tables, and graphs in Stata, R, and Python so students can tinker with our code and compare the solutions in the different software. We share all raw and cleaned data we use in the case studies. Each of our case studies starts with a relevant question and answers it in the end, using real life data and applying the tools and methods covered in the particular chapter. This reflects our view that working through case studies is the best way to learn data analysis. MORE on contentĪ cornerstone of this textbook are 47 case studies spreading over one-third of our material. We explain when, why, and how the various methods work, and how they are related to each other. The textbook is divided into four parts covering data wrangling and exploration, regression analysis, prediction with machine learning, and causal analysis. We cover all the fundamental methods that help along the process of data analysis. Our textbook equips future data analysts with the most important tools, methods and skills they need through the entire process of data analysis to answer data focused, real life questions. The final task is to answer the original question, with potential qualifications and directions for future inquiries. Carefully crafted data visualization help summarize our findings and convey key messages. Along the way, correct interpretation and effective presentation of the results are crucial. The main analysis consists of choosing and implementing the method to answer the question, with potential robustness checks. Exploratory data analysis gives context to the eventual results and helps deciding the details of the analytical method to be applied. Then comes cleaning and organizing the data, tedious but essential tasks that affect the results of the analysis as much as any other step in the process. It starts with formulating a question and collecting appropriate data, or assessing whether the available data can help answer the question. Why use this book?ĭata analysis is a process. You can check out the video recording of the launch webinar, or check out the slideshow presentation.