An Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis Using Stata®
From Research Design to Final Report

Second Edition

Lisa Daniels - Washington College, USA
Nicholas Minot - International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC

Other Titles in:
Econometrics | Political Science Statistics | Quantitative/Statistical Research (General)

March 2025 | 352 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

An Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis Using Stata®: From Research Design to Final Report, Second Edition provides an integrated approach to research methods, statistics and data analysis, and interpretation of results in Stata. Drawing on their combined 25 years of experience teaching statistics and research methods, authors Lisa Daniels and Nicholas Minot frame data analysis within the research process—identifying gaps in the literature, examining the theory, developing research questions, designing a questionnaire or using secondary data, analyzing the data, and writing a research paper—so readers better understand the context of data analysis. Throughout, the text focuses on documenting and communicating results so students can produce a finished report or article by the end of their courses.

The Second Edition has been thoroughly updated with all new articles and data—including coverage of ChatGPT, COVID-19 policies, and SAT scores—to demonstrate the relevance of data analysis for students. A new chapter on advanced methods in regression analysis allows instructors to better feature these important techniques. Stata code has been updated to the latest version, and new exercises throughout offer more chances for practice.

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part I • The Research Process And Data Collection

Chapter 1 • A Brief Overview of the Research Process

1.1 Introduction

1.2 What Is Research

1.3 Steps In The Research Process

1.4 Conclusion

Exercises

Chapter 2 • Sampling Techniques

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Sample Design

2.3 Selecting A Sample

2.4 Sampling Weights

Exercises

Chapter 3 • Questionnaire Design

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Types Of Questionnaires

3.3 Guidelines For Questionnaire Design

3.4 Recording Responses

3.5 Skip Patterns

3.6 Ethical Issues

Exercises

Part II • Describing Data

Chapter 4 • An Introduction to Stata

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Opening Stata And Stata Windows

4.3 Working With Existing Data

4.4 Setting Preferences In Stata

4.5 Entering Your Own Data Into Stata

4.6 Using Log Files And Saving Your Work

4.7 Getting Help

4.8 Summary Of Commands Used In This Chapter

Exercises

Chapter 5 • Preparing and Transforming Your Data

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Checking For Outliers

5.3 Creating New Variables

5.4 Missing Values In Stata

5.5 Summary Of Commands Used In This Chapter

Exercises

Chapter 6 • Descriptive Statistics

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Types Of Variables And Measurement

6.3 Descriptive Statistics For All Types Of Variables: Frequency Tables And Modes

6.4 Descriptive Statistics For Variables Measured As Ordinal, Interval, And Ratio Scales: Median And Percentiles

6.5 Descriptive Statistics For Continuous Variables: Mean, Variance, Standard Deviation, And Coefficient Of Variation

6.6 Descriptive Statistics For Categorical Variables Measured On A Nominal Or Ordinal Scale: Cross Tabulation

6.7 Applying Sampling Weights

6.8 Formatting Output For Use In A Document (Word, Google Docs, Etc.)

6.9 Graphs To Describe Data

6.10 Summary Of Commands Used In This Chapter

Exercises

Part III • Testing Hypotheses

Chapter 7 • The Normal Distribution, Hypothesis Testing, and Statistical Significance

7.1 Introduction

7.2 The Normal Distribution And Standard Scores

7.3 Sampling Distributions And Standard Errors

7.4 Examining The Theory And Identifying The Research Question And Hypothesis

7.5 Testing For Statistical Significance Between A Sample Mean And A Population Mean

7.6 Rejecting Or Not Rejecting The Null Hypothesis

7.7 Interpreting The Results

7.8 Central Limit Theorem

7.9 Presenting The Results

7.10 Comparing A Sample Proportion To A Population Proportion

7.11 Summary Of Commands Used In This Chapter

Exercises

Chapter 8 • Testing a Hypothesis About a Single Mean and a Single Proportion

8.1 Introduction

8.2 When To Use The One-Sample t Test

8.3 Calculating The One-Sample t Test

8.4 Conducting A One-Sample t Test

8.5 Interpreting The Output

8.6 Presenting The Results

8.7 Estimating A Population Proportion From A Sample Proportion

8.8 Summary Of Commands Used In This Chapter

Exercises

Chapter 9 • Testing a Hypothesis About Two Independent Means

9.1 Introduction

9.2 When To Use A Two Independentsamples t Test

9.3 Calculating The t Statistic

9.4 Conducting A t Test

9.5 Interpreting The Output

9.6 Presenting The Results

9.7 Summary Of Commands Used In This Chapter

Exercises

Chapter 10 • One-Way Analysis of Variance

10.1 Introduction

10.2 When To Use One-Way ANOVA

10.3 Calculating The F Ratio

10.4 Conducting A One-Way ANOVA Test

10.5 Interpreting The Output

10.6 Is One Mean Different or are all of Them Different?

10.7 Presenting The Results

10.8 Summary Of Commands Used In This Chapter

Exercises

Chapter 11 • Comparing Categorical Variables – The Chi-Squared Test and Proportions

11.1 Introduction

11.2 When To Use The Chi-Squared Test

11.3 Calculating The Chi-Square Statistic

11.4 Conducting A Chi-Squared Test

11.5 Interpreting The Output

11.6 Presenting The Results

11.7 Comparing Proportions Or Binary Categorical Variables

11.8 Summary Of Commands Used In This Chapter

Exercises

Part IV • Exploring Relationships

Chapter 12 • Linear Regression Analysis

12.1 Introduction

12.2 When To Use Regression Analysis

12.3 Correlation

12.4 Simple Regression Analysis

12.5 Multiple Regression Analysis

12.6 Presenting The Results

12.7 Summary Of Commands Used In This Chapter

Exercises

Chapter 13 • Regression Diagnostics

13.1 Introduction

13.2 Measurement Error

13.3 Specification Error

13.4 Multicollinearity

13.5 Heteroscedasticity

13.6 Endogeneity

13.7 Nonnormality

13.8 Presenting The Results

13.9 Summary Of Commands Used In This Chapter

Exercises

Chapter 14 • Regression Analysis with Binary Dependent Variables

14.1 Introduction

14.2 When To Use Logit Or Probit Analysis

14.3 Understanding The Logit Model

14.4 Running A Logit Model

14.5 Interpreting The Results Of A Logit Model

14.6 Logit Versus Probit Regression Models

14.7 Presenting The Results

14.8 Summary Of Commands Used In This Chapter

Exercises

Chapter 15 • Introduction to Advanced Topics in Regression Analysis

15.1 Introduction

15.2 Regression With A Categorical Dependent Variable

15.3 Instrumental Variables Regression

15.4 Regression With Time-Series Data

15.5 Regression That Combines Cross-Section And Time-Series Data

15.6 Summary Of Commands Used In This Chapter

Exercises

Part V • Writing A Research Paper

Chapter 16 • Writing a Research Paper

16.1 Introduction

16.2 Introduction Section Of A Research Paper

16.3 Literature Review

16.4 Theory, Data, And Methods

16.5 Results

16.6 Discussion

16.7 Conclusions

Exercises

Appendices

Appendix 1 • Quick Reference Guide to Stata Commands

Appendix 2 • Summary of Statistical Tests by Chapter

Appendix 3 • Decision Tree for Choosing the Right Statistic

Appendix 4 • Decision Rules for Statistical Significance

Appendix 5 • Areas Under the Normal Curve (Z Scores)

Appendix 6 • Critical Values of the t Distribution

Appendix 7 • Stata Code for Random Sampling

Appendix 8 • Examples of Nonlinear Functions

Appendix 9 • Estimating the Minimum Sample Size

Appendix 10 Description of the Data Sets Used in the Textbook

Glossary

About the Authors

Index

Supplements

Instructor Resource Site
Online resources included with this text

The online resources for your text are available via the password-protected Instructor Resource Site, which offers access to all text specific resources, including a test bank, data sets, answer keys to exercises and homework problems, sample study guides, sample syllabus and course calendar, and tips for managing the grading load.

For additional information, custom options, or to request a personalized walkthrough of these resources, please contact your sales representative.

Author-created slides are available directly from the authors. To request these slides, please contact Lisa Daniels at LDaniels2@washcoll.edu or Nicholas Minot at N.Minot@gmail.com. These slides include smaller font sizes and provide more detailed information on each slide.

Student Resource Site

The book by Daniels and Minot helps students understand how to conduct empirical research. The authors' concise and straightforward approach makes complicated topics easy to grasp, while their emphasis on a hands-on experience approach utilizing Stata further enhances the practicality of the material.

Hector H. Sandoval

University of Florida

An Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis is a perfect example of a text that helps students learn how to use STATA and interpret statistical output! I often tell students that 'real' statisticians do not use paper and pencil or a graphing calculator to crunch numbers. We use STATA and this book integrates STATA into the learning process.

Michael Danza

Copper Mountain College

This textbook is a valuable resource for teaching students the basics of quantitative analysis with STATA. Its clear writing style ensures content accessibility. The simple explanations and practical examples maintain student engagement. Additionally, the book seamlessly integrates theoretical concepts with real-world applications, enhancing understanding and fostering critical thinking skills.

Nurgul R. Aitalieva

Purdue University, Fort Wayne.

This is a great book for an undergraduate student population just getting into quantitative methods and STATA.

Jill Weinberg

Tufts University

The writing is very clear and accessible, yet the statistical coverage is thorough enough for graduate students. The examples of how to use commands and how to interpret output are great references for students after they finish the course.

Janet P. Stamatel

University of Kentucky

I LOVE how you use applied examples as I endeavor to do this every week for them and have found some great examples within this work! It brings the fun world of data analysis right to them so they can see why it is important. I think the authors also did a great job on varying topics across social science disciplines, not neglecting hardly a one anywhere—no room for improvement and only wish more analysis books did featuring so well.

Kara Sutton

Southern Methodist University

Takes the approach we do that you have to start with good research methods, assumes no prior stat knowledge, focuses on the foundational basics that students 'already know' but don't really understand (this is a big strength of the book!), and teaches those basics in conjunction with Stata coding.

Chelsea Rae Kelly

The Catholic University of America

The second chapter offers a comprehensive guide on presenting students' research papers. It includes concrete examples illustrating each section of a research paper, making it particularly beneficial for students unfamiliar with this type of writing. Furthermore, the paper by Talan and Kalinkara (2023) on ChatGPT serves as a bridge between academic research and our daily lives. It highlights that academic knowledge, including what students learn from this book, is not separate from our everyday experiences.

Jaeyun Sung

Lyon College

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From Research Design to Final Report

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