Quantitative Methods in Political Science

Fall 2025

University of Mannheim

Quantitative Methods

This course introduces graduate students to quantitative methods in political science. During the first half of the course, we will focus on linear regression models. The topics covered include discussions of the mathematical bases for such models, their estimation and interpretation, model assumptions and techniques for addressing violations of those assumptions, and topics related to model specification and functional forms. During the second half of the course, students will be introduced to the likelihood principle as a theory of inference, including models for binary and count data.

The main goals of this course are to develop sound critical judgment about quantitative studies of political problems, to interpret quantitative analyses in published work, to understand the logic of statistical inference and to recognize and understand basic regression models. It provides the skills necessary to conduct your own quantitative analyses and teaches how to do so using R. This class lays the foundation for Advanced Quantitative Methods, which will be taught in Spring 2026.

Organization

Lecture

Wednesday 8:30–10:00
A5,6 B244

Labs

Thursday 08:30–10:00
Room A102 in B6, 23-25, Bauteil A
Friday 10:15–11:45
Room B318 in A5, 6, Bauteil B

Office Hours

Thomas: Tuesday 13:30-14:30
Domantas: Monday 14:30–16:00
Muhammad: Wednesday 15:30–17:00
David: Wednesday 15:30-17:00

Homework Assignments

Assigned after Friday tutorial
Due next Thursday, 23:59
HWs 1-2: HWs 3–10:

Grading

Midterm - 50%
Data Essay - 50%
Problem Sets - Pass/Fail

Syllabus

For more details, check out the Syllabus, and Roadmap for the course material overview

Getting help in the course

We expect everyone will have questions at some point in the semester, so we encourage you to use the following resources for help. You can check our readily available guides to review basics of R, Git and Markdown or troubleshoot common issues.

Ask questions during lectures and labs

If you have a question during lecture or lab, feel free to ask it! There are likely other students with the same question, so by asking you will create a learning opportunity for everyone.

Office hours

The teaching team is here to help you be successful in the course. You are encouraged to attend office hours during the times posted on the home page to ask questions about the course content and assignments. From our experience, we can best help if you come with a specific question in mind.

Slack

Students regularly run into the same issues as one another, so it’s helpful to ask these questions in a shared space. You are thus welcome to post questions in our Slack workspace. You can ask questions and help each other out by answering questions of your peers. We will monitor the channel and try to respond to your questions there ASAP.

Guides

The course has developed with the input of many engaged lecturers and lab instructors teaching alongside Thomas Gschwend, who are now practicing as successful researchers, professors, and leading data scientists in Political Science and Computational Social Science. In our experience, some questions do come up more frequently than others and, unfortunately, not everything can be covered in a single semester. Therefore, we offer you a Guides section to help you troubleshoot and review key concepts for R, Git and Markdown.

Email

If you have questions about personal matters that are not appropriate for the public space like Slack channels (e.g., illness, accommodations, etc.), please do not hesitate to email us.