Understanding Elections and Electoral Data With Basic Statistics

A two-day workshop to look at the Indian electoral data through statistical tools

Instructor: Dr. Neelanjan SircarLanguage: English

Register

About the course

Name: Understanding Elections and Electoral Data With Basic Statistics
Brand: Prayaas
SKU: 638c3eb0e4b095a7690ffa85
Price: 300 INR
Availability: InStock

This is a two-day workshop to learn how to apply statistical methods in grasping Indian electoral data. Anyone who is interested in learning and applying basic statistics to understanding electoral data and trends can sign up for this workshop!

During this workshop, the participants will immerse in six live online sessions with Dr. Neelanjan Sircar. Through interactive discussions and hands on applications, participants will learn the principles of statistical inference and causal claims, the methodology for framing hypotheses, and understand the basics of causality. On the second day, these will be applied to Indian electoral context by taking the dataset from Election Commission (as processed by Trivedi Centre for Political Data).

Student Intake: 20-25

Small cohort to maximize personal attention

Dates: 14-15th January

Full-day weekend workshops

Duration: 12 hours

2 days workshop with 6 sessions of 2 hours each

Last date of registration

7th January 2023

Please note:

The Workshop has already been conducted.

The recording of the workshop are now available for you to learn from.

Certificates are not included in the pre recorded workshops

Register to enter the session to gain profound Knowledge and insight.

Structure of the Workshop

Day 1: The Statistical Frame

Session 1: Introduction to Statistical Methods

a. The scientific method, and how to go from question to hypothesis

b. Different ways of testing hypotheses

c. The challenges of causal claims

Session 2: Framing Hypotheses

a. Identifying questions suitable for hypotheses

b. Identifying the predictors and outcomes

c. Interactive session on questions and hypothesis-making

Session 3: Counterfactuals and Causality

a. Looking at Counterfactuals and Counterfactual Tables

b. The Fundamental Problem of Causal Inference

c. The Role of Randomization

d. Estimation of a Causal Effect

Day 2: Datasets and Framework

Session 4: Introduction to Election Data

a. A Look at Election Data (Trivedi Centre for Political Data)

b. Framing Hypotheses on Electoral Data

c. Calculating Quantities of Interest from Political Data

Session 5: Summarizing Data

a. Tabulations and Frequency Summaries

b. Basic Graphs

Session 6: Testing Hypotheses and Statistical Significance

a. The idea behind “statistical significance”

b. Chi-squared Test

c. Two-sample t-Test

You will Learn:

1. Principles of statistical inference and causal claims

Through the examples of John Snow’s discovery of the causes of cholera, the role of turnout in BJP vote share in national elections, and the polio vaccine.

2. Basics of counterfactual

tables and how to calculate causal effects

Using simulation methods, you will learn how randomization retrieves the causal effect and why that happens

3. Which “empirical questions” are suitable to frame hypotheses — namely a null hypothesis and an alternate hypothesis

Understanding of how the “X” (predictor) variable and the “Y”

(outcome) variable are to be coded.

4. Basic elements of a constituency-level election dataset from the Election Commission

Consider key X and Y variables to test hypotheses, e.g., turnout, reservation status, region (X variables) and vote shares and strike rates (Y variables) to do electoral analysis.

5. Pictorial Representation of Data

The sessions focus on interpretation, as calculation will be beyond the scope of a two-day course. We show how displaying data in table format and graphs can help in making inferences.

6. The meaning of statistical

significance

The meaning of statistical significance (as a false rejection rate for the null hypothesis), and demonstration of how to calculate it either from Excel or an online application.

Your Mentor

Dr. Neelanjan Sircar

Dr. Sircar is a Senior Fellow at CPR and Assistant Professor at Ashoka University and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include Indian political economy and comparative political behavior with an eye to Bayesian statistics, causal inference, social network analysis, and game theory. Mr Sircar’s recent work focused on state level elections in India through both data work and ethnographic methods. He is particularly interested in understanding theoretic principles that undergird the decision-making processes of voters in India, which can shed light on democratic practice in the developing world more generally.

What makes this different?

LEARN FROM THE BEST

Attend a dynamic one weekend workshop facilitated by an accomplished expert.

LIVE-ONLINE SESSIONS

An intensive certification workshop offered through live online lectures where you participate in discussions and activities

SMALL BATCHES

Study in a small cohort with a specialist professor who will engage with unique pedagogy

You may also be interested in