Courses

First Year: Quantitative Methods Component in Politics Prelims (PPE & History and Politics)

The purpose of the methods component in Prelims is to enable students to assess and critically evaluate better assertions, theories, arguments and opinions expressed in the substantive papers of their degree [component b of the paper]. Throughout the first year, PPE and History & Politics students encounter statements accompanied by quantitative analyses aimed to provide a backing of theoretical statements with empirical evidence. Our knowledge and understanding of politics is largely contingent upon the confirmation or refutation of these statements by the empirical evidence. Statistical tools are essential for researchers to test their claims against the empirical evidence. Basic concepts of statistics, especially randomness and averaging, provide the foundations for measuring concepts, designing studies, estimating quantities of interest and testing theories and conjectures.