Research Methods in Public Administration-I

Course Objective
The objective of this course is to familiarize the students with the application of various elementary statistical methods required to conduct social and behavioural research in public administration and prepare research reports.

Course Contents

Unit I: Descriptive Statistics

1. Introduction (5 Lecture Hours)

1.1 Meaning of statistics
1.2 General field of statistics
1.3 Use of statistics
1.4 Summarizing the data
1.5 Measure of Central Tendency: mean; weighted mean
1.6 Concepts of median and mode
1.7 Measure of dispersion: range, variance and standard deviation
1.8 Use of descriptive statistics

2. Determining the Bi-variate Relationship (10 Lecture Hours)

2.1 Correlation analysis: Karl Pearson's and Spearman's rank
2.2 Regression analysis
2.3 Significance of observed sample correlation and regression coefficients.

3. Probability (10 Lecture Hours)

3.1 Introduction: meaning, importance, events
3.2 Basic laws of Probability: classical approach, relative frequency approach and subjective approach
3.3 Some fundamental rules of probability: additional rule, multiplication rules, conditional probability
3.4 Theoretical distributions: Binomial and Normal distribution

4. Inferential Statistics: Estimation (10 Lecture Hours)

4.1 Estimation
4.1.1 Basic concept of sampling distribution and standard error
4.1.2 Estimator and estimate
4.1.3 Criteria of a good estimator
4.1.4 Types of estimates
4.1.5 Interval estimate for population proportion and mean
4.1.6 Determining sample size

5. Inferential Statistics: Test of Hypothesis (15 Lecture Hours)

5.1 Test of hypothesis
5.2 Introduction: meaning, critical values, significance level, type I and type II errors, one tailed and two tailed tests, steps in testing a hypothesis, parametric and non-parametric tests)
5.3 Test of significance of proportion (single and double samples)
5.4 Test of significance of mean (single and double samples, large and small samples, independent and dependent samples)
5.5 Test of significance of difference of two sample variances (F- test)
5.6 Test of goodness of fit and test of independence (Chi-square test)
5.7 Test of significance of more than two samples means (Ordinal data- Kruskal Wallis H-test)

Course Title: Research Methods in Public Administrative-I
Course No.: PA 540
Nature of the Course: Analytical and Professional Core
Duration of the Course: 100 Lecture hrs.
Duration of the Class: 60 minutes
Full Marks: 50
Pass Marks: 20

References

1. B. Macfie, and Nufrio, P M., Applied Statistics for Public Policy, New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India Pvt. Ltd., 2006
2. P.K. Sharma, and Chaudhary, A.K. Statistical Methods for MBS, and MPA, Kathmandu: Khanal Books Prakashan, 2058 BS
3. D. Levine, Bereson, M.L. and Stephan, Statistics for Managers, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, 1999
4. R.I. Levin, and Rubin, D.S. Statistics for Management, Pretice-Hall of India Ltd. New Delhi,2000
5. J.S. Chandan, Statistics for Business and Economics, Vikash Publishing House Ltd. New Delhi, 1999
6. Sthapit, Gautam, H., Josi, P.R. and Dangol, P., Statistical Methods, Buddha Academic Publishers and Distributors Pvt. Ltd. 2003
7. Sunity Shrestha, and wilwal, D., Statistical Methods in Management, Taleju Prakashan, 2000 S.C. Gupta, Fundamentals of statistics, Himalaya Publishing House, Latest Edition
8. D.H. Hinkle, Wiersma, W. and Jurs, S.G., Applied Statistics for the Behavioural Science, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Fourth Edition