Levelling up Group

• Levelling Up Statistics
• Basic Economics
• New Social Developments
• Concepts of Social Policy
• Labour Market Policy
• Analytical Demography

Socio Economic Policy Group

• Social Problems and Reforms Seminar
• Social Policy
• Comparative and International Socio-economic Policy

Policy Evaluation Group

• The Policy Cycle
• Evaluation Techniques and Tools

Statistics & Research Group

• Statistics & Research Methods part 1
• Statistics & Research Methods part 2

Master Dissertation

• Master Dissertation

0ptional courses

• Applied Methodology
• Performance audit in social policy

Courses: Applied Methodology: how to do relevant research

Teaching Staff

Prof. Jacques Hagenaars (University of Tilburg, the Netherlands)

Literature

Glenn Firebaugh (2008). 7 – Seven Rules for Social Research. Princeton University Press

Objectives

The purpose of the course is to teach the students how to use their existing methodological knowledge to carry out meaningful, nontrivial research. At a few instances, new but widely used methods are introduced, but in a nontechnical way. The book formulates seven rules to accomplish this task, using extensively discussed examples taken from a context that is familiar to the IMPALLA student, e.g., does foreign aid to underdeveloped countries contribute to their economic welfare or just the opposite (Firebaugh can be characterized as a sociologist-economist). Students are expected to read the successive chapters before the class in which they are discussed. In principle, two students present in the first hour the main implications of a particular chapter and try to show from their own experience how to apply the principles involved (analogous to the questions at the end of each chapter).

Content of the course (and the book)

1. Rule 1: There should be the possibility of surprise in social research (without surprise the research will be trivial; how does this relate to the formulation of the research question, the sample design etc.)
2. Rule 2: Look for differences that make a difference and report them (how to distinguish relevant from irrelevant differences and research outcomes; how to compare effects of different variables)
3. Rule 3: Build reality checks into your research (how to make your outcomes ‘real’ and telling)
4. Rule 4: Replicate where possible (why is replication necessary; dangers of unique outcomes and how to avoid them)
5. Rule 5: Compare like with like (how does spuriousness, confounding threaten the validity of your causal conclusions and how to overcome this danger)
6. Rule 6: Use panel data to study individual change and repeated cross-section data to study social change (possibilities, advantages and disadvantages of panel studies compared to trend studies (repeated cross-sections)
7. Rule 7: Let method be the servant, not the master!

Exam

active participation in the course is sufficient to pass the course; there are no extra assignments or exams after the course. The course consists of 6 or 7 meetings of 3 to 4 hours. Each week one or two chapters will be discussed.