Old Dog, New Tricks: Acquiring Empirical Skills

The shimmering mirage of summer has cast its spell on me, which means I am laboring under the delusion that I will have so much more time to do the thinking, learning, and writing that I want to be doing.  My work is increasingly dependent upon statistical evaluations that others do, and occasionally involves my own work in the area.   Several years ago I attended an empirical workshop for law professors at USC (something like this) taught by Lee Epstein and Andrew Martin that was an instrumental introduction and my only formal foundation in the area.  I have the bug and want to learn more!  But I don't know the best way to go about it-- piecemeal or full immersion--or even what all is available.  I compiled my research below and share the list for interested readers.  Comments encouraged by anyone who wants to share their experience with a listed option, general advice,  or add to this meager list.

Empirical Skills Resources:

Blogs like: Andrew Gelman &  Empirical Legal Studies Blog

Introduction/Immersion Workshops like:

• George Mason’s empirical workshop 
• Duke/Northwestern’s causal inference workshop 
• SELS pre-conference empirical training 
• Estimate--Michigan State’s summer econometrics workshop
• ICPSR summer offerings – 

 

Free electronic courses:

See, e.g., Stanford Introduction to Statistics (for more information on itunes university, see this article)

Recomended text books/books

Epstein/Martin Introduction to Empirical Research

Wooldridge, Introductory Econometrics 

Enroll in a course at your university (audit or pursue another degree) such as basic statistics or an Econometrics course.

-Anne Tucker