PADM 7060 Quantitative Methods for
Public Administration – Unit 1
Fall 2004
Jerry Merwin
Let’s review the syllabus:
 Syllabus (page 1)
 Description:
 The application of quantitative methods to
problems faced by the public administration
practitioners.
 Topics include regression analysis and the
use of probability theory as they apply to
decision making in public management.
Texts:
 Meier, K. J., & Brudney, J. L. (2002).
Applied statistics for public
administration, (5th ed.). Fort Worth,
TX.: Harcourt-Brace.
 Corbett, M., & LeRoy, M. K. (2001).
Research Methods in political science
(4th ed.). Belmont , CA: Wadsworth.
Instructor:
 Gerald A. "Jerry" Merwin Jr., Ph.D.
 <gamerwin@valdosta.edu>
 Link to contact information.
 Office Schedule:
 The weeks of classes at Moody Air Force Base I
will have office hours on Wednesday afternoons
in West Hall.
 I will be available other times by appointment.
 If you need to schedule a meeting, please
arrange an appointment time directly with me.
Voice & Messaging:
 Cellular: 912.222.4693
 VSU Office Telephone: 229.333.5771
 FAX: 229.333.5910
More on Syllabus:
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Expected Outcomes
ADA: http://www.valdosta.edu/ssp/
Course Requirements
In addition to the textbooks, each
student is required to have a
calculator and graph paper.
Class Policies
 Plagiarism:
 Read the information on the MPA web site:
http://www.valdosta.edu/mpa/argyle/Plagiarism.pdf
 Sign the form:
plag.form.only.sp04.doc
 Evaluation:
 Examinations 75%
 Homework & Participation 25%
 Total 100%
Class Policies
(Continued)
 Group Projects
 Communication
 Attendance
Assignments
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Course Purpose
Homework
Examinations
Project Submission
Schedule
 General Overview
 Week 1
 Tuesday, September 21, 2004
 Introductions, Review of Syllabus, Policies,
etc., Discuss Assignments
 Introduction to Statistics, Measurement &
Research Design
 Meier & Brudney, Preface, Chapters 1 – 3,
Problems 2.2 and 3.2
 Corbett, Chapters 1 - 5
Conduct of Class
 Meeting/Arrival Time
 Breaks (Frequency & Duration)
 Ending Time (Amount of time spent in
class)
 Interruptions/Disruptions/Side
Discussions
 Consideration for Speaker
 Other issues
Meier & Brudney: Preface
 What key point did you get from the
Preface?
 Other related points:
 How many people have experience with
measurement/statistics?
 Has anyone had an undergraduate course in
statistics?
 Why is a statistics course in PA viewed
differently from one in other master’s level
programs?
 How are nonprofit examples important?
Meier & Brudney
 Note list of symbols on page xxiii
 How are these important?
 What can you do to keep up with them?
Meier & Brudney Part I:
Foundations of Quantitative Analysis
 Chapter 1: Statistics and Public
Administration
 Chapter 2: Measurement
 Chapter 3: Research Design
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 1
Statistics and Public Administration
 What are the advantages of a
statistical approach?
 Systematic description of data
 Precision & Quantification
 Tendencies & Spread of Data
 Empirical testing of hypotheses
 Making inferences about population from
sample data
 Estimate error risk
 Examples?
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 1
Statistics and Public Administration (Page 2)
 What are the advantages of a
statistical approach? (Continued)
 Keep track of variables of great interest
and concern (homelessness, poverty, illiteracy, crime,
drug & alcohol dependency, child & spousal abuse)
 Make sense of relationships between
variables
 Help public & nonprofit manager
evaluate data from reports, evaluations,
memoranda, journals, etc.
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 1
Statistics and Public Administration (Page 3)
 How can it help managers to study statistics?
 Reduce “seat-of-the-pants” decision making.
 Improve projections on staffing and other needs.
 Allow higher quality evaluation of programs.
 Produce better design of systems (transportation, etc.)
 Improve range/continuum of options regarding data
review and reports:
 From not reading them
 To taking the data and/or interpretation at face value,
Read and
understand data and interpretations.
 So middle option makes more sense!
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 1
Statistics and Public Administration (Page 4)
 What is the role of calculation?
 We get a better understanding of statistics
from the computation.
 Calculations tell us what we get from what
we enter.
 Why not use statistics software for PC?
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 1
Statistics and Public Administration (Page 5)
 How are NASPAA Standards involved?
 National Association of Schools of Public Affairs
and Administration provides accreditation for
graduate programs.
 “NASPAA Stipulates that the ‘common
curriculum components shall enhance the
student’s values, knowledge, and skills to act
ethically and effectively in the application of
quantitative and qualitative techniques of
analysis (Meier & Brudney, p. 7).’”
 Meier & Brudney book intended to satisfy
NASPAA requirements.
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 1
Statistics and Public Administration (Page 6)
 What is the purpose of the
“Road Map” for the book at the
end of Chapter 1?
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 2
Measurement
 What is measurement? (See page 13)
 Explain “Measurement Theory” and
how “concepts” are involved.
 What is an “Operational Definition” and
how is it important?
 How is an “Indicator” important?
 Let’s look at some examples (on page 14…)
 Explain “Multiple Indicators” and
triangulation.
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 2
Measurement (Page 2)
 What are “Measurement Validity” and
“valid indicator” as explained in our book?
 Convergent Validity
 Discriminant Validity
 How can validity be established?
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Face validity?
Consensual validity?
Correlational validity?
Predictive validity?
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 2
Measurement (Page 3)
 Explain “Measurement Reliability” or
“Reliability Indicator”
 What are the two major threats
measurement reliability? (page 17)
 Subjective Measure
 Lack of Precision
 How do we measure reliability?
 Test-retest
 Parallel forms
 Split-half
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 2
Measurement (Page 4)
 What types of measures are used?
 Subjective
 Objective
 Unobtrusive
 Explain reactivity or reactive measure
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 2
Measurement (Page 5)
 What are levels of measurement
important?
 Interval
 Ordinal
 Nominal
 Summary of chapter
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 2
Measurement
 Problem 2.2
 Compile a list of indicators that could be
used to evaluate the quality of a city’s
sanitary landfill (garbage dump).
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 2
Measurement
 Any questions?
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 3
Research Design (Page 1)
 Let’s discuss the example at the beginning
of the chapter, the “Stand Up for Bison”
program.
 Senior citizens below the poverty line were
supposed to have improved quality of life by
moving to new federally subsidized public
housing (Meier & Brudney, p. 25).
 Turns out the program does not work, so it is
terminated, with a loss of federal funds and jobs
(Meier & Brudney).
 A local newspaper blames the mayor and his
“cronies” and suggests that skimming of funds
might have been involved (Meier & Brudney).
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 3
Research Design (Page 2)
 How does Dick Murray, strategist for the
mayor, help save the day for the mayor and
his staff?
 Murray does research and finds a similar city
(Virtuous, Montana) has a successful program.
 Comparing the two programs, Murray finds the
following factors:
 Interest of Mayor Lewis and staff is
comparable to those in Virtuous.
 Competence of mayor and staff is similar.
 Federal funding was lower for Bison!
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 3
Research Design (Page 3)
 How does the example relate to our
chapter 3 topic?
 Social science research is often focused
on a search for causal relationships
between variable and events.
 Murray was using research to help
resolve the major political concern of the
“failed program” and identify some other
possible factors to find the cause of the
failure.
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 3
Research Design (Page 4)
 How do we construct causal
explanations? (Page 27)
 See some examples of questions related
to factors involved in the social programs
and their success or failure.
 Explain how the “Concept” is involved.
 What does the author mean by saying
that “concepts act as a perceptual
screen” (Meier & Brudney, p. 27)…
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 3
Research Design (Page 5)
 What is “Empirical Research” and how
is it important?
 What are the two types of definitions
related to empirical research?
 Nominal or Conceptual Definitions
 Operational Definitions (see page 28)
 How does a concept become a
variable? (see page 29)
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 3
Research Design (Page 6)
 What are the two main types of
variables?
 Dependent
 Independent
 What is a hypothesis and how is it
important?
 What is a theory?
 What are assumptions?
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 3
Research Design (Page 7)
 What is a model?
 See an example on page 31.
 Explain multiple causation.
 How is it important in social science research?
 What are the relationships of the following
terms: covariation, partially spurious, etc., see
page 34.
 How can an arrow diagram help sort out
variables and interrelationships in multiple
causation?
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 3
Research Design (Page 8)
 What is research design?
 When talking about causality, we are
concerned with:
 Internal validity
 External validity
 Make a distinction between:
 Experimental research designs
 Quasi-experimental designs
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 3
Research Design (Page 9)
 Experimental Research Designs
(37)
 Internal validity
 Steps 1 through 5
 See Table 3.2 for classical design
 Explain the importance of random assignment.
 Outline the criteria for causality. (38-39)
 External validity issues with experimental
designs:
 Context
 Pretesting
 Solomon four-group design
 See Tables 3.3 & 3.4
 Sample: Captive Populations
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 3
Research Design (Page 10)
 Quasi-Experimental Designs
(41)
 Internal validity (See table 3.5)
 Cross-sectional study (a.k.a. correlational study)
 Case study
 Panel study
 Trend studies
 Longitudinal studies
 Major threat? (See pages 43-44 for cause/solution)
 External Validity
 Easy to get good samples
 Typically occur in “natural” environment
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 3
Research Design (Page 11)
 Research Designs & Validity
 Trade-off between internal and external
validity
 General difficulty of obtaining reliable
causal inferences
 Examples: research on job attitudes and
performance – “Where are we now?”
 Also, typical conjecture on causal
relationships without meeting criteria
 Summary
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 3
Research Design (Page 12)
 Problem 3.2:
 Develop a model that includes at least four
concepts. Elaborate any theoretical or literature
support underlying it. Present the model in an
arrow diagram that shows schematically the
relationships the model proposes. Provide
operational definitions for all the concepts, and
state hypotheses derived from the model.
 Which types of research design would be best
suited to testing the model?
 Which types of research design would bes least
suited to testing the model?
Meier & Brudney: Chapter 3
Research Design (Page 13)
 Questions?