Public Policy Analytics: Code & Context for Data Science in Government teaches readers how to address complex public policy problems with data and analytics using reproducible methods in R. Each of the eight chapters provides a detailed case study, showing readers: how to develop exploratory indicators; understand ‘spatial process’ and develop spatial analytics; how to develop ‘useful’ predictive analytics; how to convey these outputs to non-technical decision-makers through the medium of data visualization; and why, ultimately, data science and ‘Planning’ are one and the same. A graduate-level introduction to data science, this book will appeal to researchers and data scientists at the intersection of data analytics and public policy, as well as readers who wish to understand how algorithms will affect the future of government.

A critical yet constructive description of the rich analytical techniques and substantive applications that typify how statistical thinking has been applied at the RAND Corporation over the past two decades. Case studies of public policy problems are useful for teaching because they are familiar: almost everyone knows something abut health insurance, global warming, and capital punishment, to name but a few of the applications covered in this casebook. Each case study has a common format that describes the policy questions, the statistical questions, and the successful and the unsuccessful analytic strategies. Readers should be familiar with basic statistical concepts including sampling and regression. While designed for statistics courses in areas ranging from economics to health policy to the law at both the advanced undergraduate and graduate levels, empirical researchers and policy-makers will also find this casebook informative.

This practical text provides students with the statistical tools needed to analyze data, and shows how statistics can be used as a tool in making informed, intelligent policy decisions. The authors' approach helps students learn what statistical measures mean and focus on interpreting results, as opposed to memorizing and applying dozens of statistical formulae. The book includes more than 500 end-of-chapter problems, solvable with the easy-to-use Excel spreadsheet application developed by the authors. This template allows students to enter numbers into the appropriate sheet, sit back, and analyze the data. This comprehensive, hands-on textbook requires only a background in high school algebra and has been thoroughly classroom-tested in both undergraduate and graduate level courses. No prior expertise with Excel is required. A disk with the Excel template and the data sets is included with the book, and solutions to the end-of-chapter problems will be provided on the M.E. Sharpe website.

This textbook presents the essential tools and core concepts of data science to public officials, policy analysts, and economists among others in order to further their application in the public sector. An expansion of the quantitative economics frameworks presented in policy and business schools, this book emphasizes the process of asking relevant questions to inform public policy. Its techniques and approaches emphasize data-driven practices, beginning with the basic programming paradigms that occupy the majority of an analyst’s time and advancing to the practical applications of statistical learning and machine learning. The text considers two divergent, competing perspectives to support its applications, incorporating techniques from both causal inference and prediction. Additionally, the book includes open-sourced data as well as live code, written in R and presented in notebook form, which readers can use and modify to practice working with data.

Introduction to data analysis; Predictions and projections: some issues of research design; Two-variable linear regression; Multiple regression.

Statistics — meaning statistical data, statistical methods, and statistical thinking — play important and fascinating roles in public issues. Yet, these roles are sometimes unknown to statistics students and even professional statisticians. This book indicates some connections between statistics and public issues such as government policy- or decision-making, public administration, law, and public debate. This book describes examples of statistics in public policy areas as disparate as national defence, AIDS diffusion, DNA fingerprinting, human rights violations and scientific manpower among other areas. Although a small amount of statistical training is assumed—a minimum of a half year of undergraduate level statistics—the emphasis is on ideas rather than technical detail or mathematical generality. This low technical content makes it accessible to not only statisticians but social scientists as well. It will also be a useful resource for teachers of first year statistics.