Equips future data analysts with the skills they need to answer questions in business, economics, and public policy. Covering methods of exploratory, predictive, and causal analysis, it includes case studies that use real-world data and related data exercises supported by code (Stata, R, Python) and data available online.

Part I. Data Exploration: 1. Origins of data; 2. Preparing data for analysis; 3. Exploratory data analysis; 4. Comparison and correlation; 5. Generalizing from data; 6. Testing hypotheses; Part II. Regression Analysis: 7. Simple regression; 8. Complicated patterns and messy data; 9. Generalizing results of a regression; 10. Multiple linear regression; 11. Modeling probabilities; 12. Regression with time series data; Part III. Prediction: 13. A framework for prediction; 14. Model building for prediction; 15. Regression trees; 16. Random forest and boosting; 17. Probability prediction and classification; 18. Forecasting from time series data; Part IV. Causal Analysis: 19. A framework for causal analysis; 20. Designing and analyzing experiments; 21. Regression and matching with observational data; 22. Difference-in-differences; 23. Methods for panel data; 24. Appropriate control groups for panel data; Bibliography; Index.