POLITICAL SCIENCE 551
RESEARCH EXERCISE EXAMPLES AND DATA SETS
The final assignment requires that you prepare a very brief research report drawing in which you have posed a question for which you can apply one of the techniques we have studied to arrive at some sort of answer. Several brief example papers are available to give you an idea of what is expected. Please note that you must have Adobe Acrobat (which comes on the latest WiscWorld CD) in order to view these papers:
In doing this assignment, you may
The data sets are all in one large Excel worksheet, with each data set on a separate page. You can cut and paste into Stata or use a utility such as StatTransfer or DBMSCopy to convert the page you want to a Stata dataset. or Quattro spreadsheet. The spreadsheet contains all of the individual datasets, each one as a separate page. The spreadsheets can be downloaded in either a compressed or uncompressed form; in the compressed form, you must "execute" the downloaded file to produce the working spreadsheet file.
The available data sets shown below with extremely brief descriptions of what each contains. If you click on the hyperlink, you will access details about the variables contained in the data set. Those that show a "simple text" option require Adobe Acrobat to view with better formatting.
| ABUSE | Mandatory arrest (domestic violence) experiment in Charlotte, NC (ICPSR 6114) |
| AIR | City level data on air polution (41 cities). |
| ANOREXIA | Data from an experiment on the treatment of anorexia |
| BIRTH | Black and white infant mortality by state (circa 1990), with poverty rate data |
| BUDGET | Federal budget outlays by major agency, 1962-2000 (1995-2000 are projections) |
| CANCER | Mortality rate from lung cancer by occupation, England and Wales, 1970-72 |
| CARS93 | Characteristics of 1993 model cars |
| CIVILWAR | Data on civil wars from 1816-1992 |
| CRIME90 | County level crime data for Wisconsin, 1990 |
| CRIME92 | 1992 crime rate data by state |
| CRIMEXPD | 1993 state and local per capita expenditures on criminal justice system, plus crime rate data (1993) by state |
| DENSITY | state level data on populaton density, divorce, suicide, prison population, etc. (circa 1990-93) |
| DETERRENCE | Criminal sanctions and deterrence (murder), circa 1960 |
| DIM OF NATIONS | Dimensions of Nations data, 1960s, collected by Rudolph Rummel (ICPSR 5020) |
| DISORDER | National level disorder data, 1960s, collected by Ted Gurr (ICPSR 5009) |
| DRUGTRMT | State level drug treatment data, circa 1993 |
| EDUEXP | State level education data, circa 1993 |
| EMPLOY | Employment Security Study, 1966 |
| FEMLEG | State level data on number of women legislators plus other state level variables |
| FINANCE | Federal funds distributed to states, circa 1993, by state |
| FORCAST | Federal election outcomes, biennial, including economic indicators, and other variables |
| GLASS | Dane County Glass Ceiling Task Force data (women in government agencies) |
| GRADPROG | Graduate program ranking data (data used to rank graduate programs in Political Science, 1993) |
| HEALTH SMSA | Health service delivery, SMSA-level data, late 1960s (ICPSR 7374) |
| HEALTH STATE | Health service delivery, state-level data, late 1960s (ICPSR 7374) |
| ICECREAM | Ice Cream consumption over a 30 four week periods, March 1951-July 1953, plus temperature data, price, etc. |
| JUSTICES | United States Supreme Court Justices Biographical Data, 1789-1958 (ICPSR 7240) |
| MIRANDA (simple text) | Police Interrogations in New Haven, 1966 |
| MORAL | Out of wedlock birth rate, teen birth rate, and percent Christian, by state, circa 1990-95 |
| NEWS | Pert capita newspaper readership, election turnout, education level, income, by state, circa 1990-93 |
| POV_TURN | Voter turnout and poverty level data, by state, circa 1990-93 |
| PRESSUPP | Annual data on support for President by Congress, 1953-83 |
| RECEIPTS | Federal budget receipts by source, annual data 1936-2000 (1995-2000 are projections) |
| REPRESS | Military rule in developing countries |
| RIGHT | Level of Christian church adherence in 1980 and 1990, party representation in state legislature, by state |
| STATES | Various state level variables, circa 1990's |
| STATES65 | State level policy data, circa 1965 |
| STATES92 | State level policy data, circa 1990 |
| SUICIDE | City level data on suicide rate and unemployment |
| TRANSPT1 | Motorist deaths and safety laws, by state, circa 1990 |
| TRANSPT2 | Federal highway fund allocations by state |
| WISC80 | County level data for Wisconsin, circa 1980 |
| WISC92 | County level data for Wisconsin, circa 1990 |
| WISCAID | Public assistance in Wisconsin counties, circa 1992-93 |
| WORLDWOM | Status of women in 140 countries, circa 1980 |
last updated Decmeber 15, 2005