Graduate Methods and Models Class

The Graduate Methods and Models Class provides a forum for graduate students in Government and other relevant departments to learn techniques in statistical methods and formal theory to supplement their research. The GMMC is organized around a schedule of talks, each designed to teach attending graduate students about a specific technique, model, or problem in political methodology or formal modeling. The intent is to extend the expertise of those students who specialize in either approach, and to provide a forum for non-specialists to learn techniques that may be relevant to their substantive research. The talks should cover either common techniques useful in political science and not covered in Gov 200x, or new techniques that show promise for future political applications. Each talk should introduce the audience to an important technique or model, present the math underlying the concept, discuss its applications (current or potential) to political science, offer an evaluation of the technique's strengths and weaknesses, and finish with recommended references for further reading. These talks are not about substantive research or presenting results, but about teaching new tools to those in attendance. We are currently soliciting presenters for the 2009-10 academic year. If you are interested in giving a talk, please e-mail Brandon Stewart (bstewart@fas) or Evan Schnidman (easchnid@fas) with preferred dates and a short description of the proposed topic. In most cases, presentations last about an hour, with Q & A both during and after the talk.

September 25, 2009
3:00pm4:30pm
Bayesian Propensity Score Estimators
Location
Moderator
October 2, 2009
3:00pm4:30pm
Dynamic Linear Models and Kalman Filters
Location
Moderator
October 16, 2009
3:00pm4:30pm
Bringing Rank-Minimization Back In: An Estimator of the Number of Inputs to a Data-Generating Process
Location
Moderator
October 23, 2009
3:00pm4:30pm
The Role of Race and Gender in the Awarding of Subprime Mortgage Loans
Location
Moderator
November 13, 2009
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Moderator
December 4, 2009
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Moderator
February 20, 2009
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“A Bootstrap Approach to Time Invariance in Panel Data”
March 6, 2009
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Collective Action on a Network”
March 13, 2009
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
  • Olle Folke (IIES, Stockholm University, and Visitor, MIT Department of Political Science)
“Measuring the effect of legislative representation in proportional election systems”
abstract
April 3, 2009
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Multilevel Diffusion Curves: A Secondary Analysis of the Walker Policy Diffusion Data”
April 17, 2009
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“TBA”
May 1, 2009
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“All the Game Theory You've Never Heard Of”
September 26, 2008
4:00pm5:30pm
Cookin' with Ben: Constrained Optimization Problems in R
Location
Presentations
“Cookin' with Ben: Constrained Optimization Problems in R”
October 3, 2008
4:00pm5:30pm
Location
Presentations
  • John Patty (Harvard Government Department Faculty)
“Models of Hierarchical Decision Making”
October 10, 2008
4:00pm5:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Markovian Games”
October 17, 2008
4:00pm5:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Nonresponse in Experiments (Natural and Otherwise)”
October 24, 2008
4:00pm5:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Synthetic Matching for Causal Effects”
October 31, 2008
4:00pm5:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Causal Inference in Panels”
November 7, 2008
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Bayesian Approaches to Modeling "Power"”
November 14, 2008
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
  • ()
“Models of Accountability”
November 21, 2008
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Models of Intergenerational Politics”
December 5, 2008
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Demographic Forecasting”
December 12, 2008
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Bayesian Nonparametrics and Variational Inference”
February 1, 2008
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Survival Models”
February 8, 2008
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Reciprocal Causation”
February 15, 2008
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Blocking”
February 22, 2008
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
  • John Patty (Harvard Government Department Faculty)
“Models of Deliberation and Argument”
February 29, 2008
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
  • John Patty (Harvard Government Department Faculty)
“Delegation, Discretion, and Principal-Agent Models”
March 7, 2008
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Counterfactuals, Mechanisms, and Causal Effects”
March 14, 2008
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Cluster Randomized Experiments”
March 21, 2008
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Methods of Sensitivity Analysis for Causal Inference”
April 4, 2008
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Fuzzy Spatial Models”
April 11, 2008
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
  • ()
“Estimation Problems in the Political Economy of Inequality and Corruption”
April 25, 2008
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Making a Formal Model”
September 21, 2007
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Causal Inference”
September 28, 2007
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Data Collection from the Web”
October 5, 2007
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Factor Analysis”
October 12, 2007
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Missing Data”
October 19, 2007
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Spatial Models in Political Science”
October 26, 2007
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Ecological Inference”
November 2, 2007
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Building Your Own R Package”
November 9, 2007
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Condorcet Jury Theorem”
November 16, 2007
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Clustering Algorithms”
November 30, 2007
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Synthetic Control Methods for Comparative Case Studies”
December 7, 2007
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“Strategic Models”
December 14, 2007
3:00pm4:30pm
Location
Presentations
“TBD”