Statistics for Public Policy

A Practical Guide to Being Mostly Right (or at Least Respectably Wrong)

Jeremy G. Weber (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

192 Seiten

2024
University of Chicago Press (Verlag)
978-0-226-83075-9 (ISBN)

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A long-overdue guide on how to use statistics to bring clarity, not confusion, to policy work.

Statistics are an essential tool for making, evaluating, and improving public policy. Statistics for Public Policy is a crash course in wielding these unruly tools to bring maximum clarity to policy work. Former White House economist Jeremy G. Weber offers an accessible voice of experience for the challenges of this work, focusing on seven core practices:

Thinking big-picture about the role of data in decisions
Critically engaging with data by focusing on its origins, purpose, and generalizability
Understanding the strengths and limits of the simple statistics that dominate most policy discussions
Developing reasons for considering a number to be practically small or large
Distinguishing correlation from causation and minor causes from major causes
Communicating statistics so that they are seen, understood, and believed
Maintaining credibility by being right (or at least respectably wrong) in every setting

Statistics for Public Policy dispenses with the opacity and technical language that have long made this space impenetrable; instead, Weber offers an essential resource for all students and professionals working at the intersections of data and policy interventions. This book is all signal, no noise.

Jeremy G. Weber is professor in the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. He previously served as a chief economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Preface
1. The Big Picture
2. Know Your Sample and Data
3. Know Simple Statistics and Their Power
4. Know What It Means to Account for Potholes
5. Know Large from Small and Explain the Difference
6. Think Hard about Causality
7. Show That You’ve Been to Table School
8. Know How to Be Mostly Right (or at Least Respectfully Wrong)
9. Fail the Test? A Case Study in Using Statistics for Policy
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	11.01.2024
Zusatzinfo	17 line drawings, 2 tables
Sprache	englisch
Maße	140 x 216 mm
Gewicht	254 g
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
	Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management
	Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Ökonometrie
ISBN-10	0-226-83075-6 / 0226830756
ISBN-13	978-0-226-83075-9 / 9780226830759
Zustand	Neuware