Applied Statistics for Public and Nonprofit Administration

by Kenneth J. Meier, Jeffrey L. Brudney, John Bohte

Overview

As the first book ever published for public administration statistics courses, APPLIED STATISTICS FOR PUBLIC AND NONPROFIT ADMINISTRATION makes a difficult subject accessible to students and practitioners of public administration and to non-profit studies who have little background in statistics or research methods. Steeped in experience and practice, this landmark text remains the first and best in research methods and statistics for students and practitioners in public-and nonprofit-administration. All statistical techniques used by public administration professionals are covered, and all examples in the text relate to public administration and the nonprofit sector. Avoiding jargon and formula, this text uses a step-by-step approach that facilitates student learning.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781285737232
Publisher:	Cengage Learning
Publication date:	01/01/2014
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	528
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Kenneth J. Meier is the Charles H. Gregory Chair in Liberal Arts and Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University. He is also Professor of Public Management in the Cardiff School of Business, Cardiff University (Wales). He is a former editor of the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE (1994-1997), a former associate editor of THE JOURNAL OF POLITICS (1991-1994), and the JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION RESEARCH AND THEORY (2000-2009). He served as the president of the Southwest Political Science Association; the American Political Science Associations sections on State Politics and Policy, Public Policy, and Public Administration; the Public Management Research Association; and the Midwest Political Science Association. In 2006, he received the John Gaus Award for career contributions to public administration scholarship; and in 2010, the C. Dwight Waldo Award from the American Society for Public Administration. He currently lives with the love of his life, Diane Jones Meier, in Bryan, Texas, and spends his free time comparing the merits of California zinfandels with Australian Shirazes.

Jeffrey L. Brudney is the Albert A. Levin Chair of Urban Studies and Public Service at Cleveland State University's Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs. According to a study published in 2005 in the JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION EDUCATION, Dr. Brudney ranks tenth in research productivity among scholars worldwide based on article publication in all referred journals affiliated with the American Society for Public Administration. The Urban Institute calls him "the foremost research expert on volunteer management programs and community volunteer centers in the United States." Dr. Brudney has received several international honors and awards, including the annual Herbert Kaufman Award three times from the Public Administration Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA) for excellence in research. In 2008, he received the Academy of Management Public and Nonprofit Division Best Article Award. He also has received the William E. Mosher and Frederick C. Mosher Award for the Best Article Written by an Academician published in PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, the leading public administration journal. In 2006, he received the first-ever Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) Award for Excellence in Teaching; he also has received the Mentor Award from the APSA Women's Caucus. Dr. Brudney is the author of FOSTERING VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: PLANNING, INITIATING, AND MANAGING VOLUNTARY ACTIVITIES, for which he received the John Grenzebach Award for Outstanding Research in Philanthropy for Education. Prior to assuming the Levin Chair, Dr. Brudney cofounded and codirected the Institute for Nonprofit Organizations and the Master of Arts in Nonprofit Organizations program at the University of Georgia.

John Bohte is currently Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (PhD, Texas A&M University). Dr. Bohte enjoys teaching courses on public budgeting, statistics, and state politics.

Table of Contents

PART I: FOUNDATIONS OF QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS. 1. Statistics and Public and Nonprofit Administration. 2. Measurement. 3. Research Design. PART II: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS. 4. Frequency Distributions. 5. Measures of Central Tendency. 6. Measures of Dispersion. PART III: PROBABILITY. 7. The Normal Probability Distribution. 8. The Binomial Probability Distribution. 9. Some Special Probability Distributions. PART IV: INFERENTIAL STATISTICS. 10. Introduction to Inference. 11. Hypothesis Testing. 12. Estimating Population Proportions. 13. Testing the Difference between Two Groups. PART V: ANALYSIS OF NOMINAL AND ORDINAL DATA. 14. Construction and Analysis of Contingency Tables. 15. Aids for the Interpretation of Contingency Tables. 16. Statistical Control Table Analysis. PART VI: REGRESSION ANALYSIS. 17. Introduction to Regression Analysis. 18. The Assumptions of Linear Regression. 19. Time Series Analysis. 20. Multiple Regression. 21. Regression Output and Data Management.

Editorial Reviews

"Clarity, clarity, clarity. The key for our students--and the appeal of Meier/Brudney/Bohte--is exposure to a clear and accessible introduction to quantitative analysis."-- Matthew Dull, Virginia Tech

From the Publisher