The Political Scientist

As promised, I've completed further analysis of the impact of various factors on median household income at the metropolitan area level, the results of which are displayed and discussed below. Rather than focus on median household income in general, I've gone a step further with this analysis by looking at variation in median household income by income tier -- e.g., lower income, middle income, and upper income tiers. The results are interesting (at least I think so...), and they arguably have significance for public policy. Also, if you don't care for all the glorious (ok...boring) details in the following analysis, just scroll on down to the conclusion. In my previous post I alluded to what I viewed as a misguided hyper-focus on security, crime, and undocumented immigration in this current presidential election season (most notably because of the rhetoric of the Republican nominee) that has distracted from other important social and economic issues. Now, I certainly thi

While this election season has a particular candidate caricaturing himself as a "law and order" candidate, violence and crime are far from what ails this country. Most reports show that crime is down across the U.S., and while police deaths (and really all deaths) are tragedies in their own right, this issue has been largely exaggerated. These are certainly important problems, but many of the issues that impact the majority of Americans are economic and social in nature. Regarding the economic problems, household income is a particularly important issue. So, in continuation with the theme of my last post, I'd like to present some of my findings from an analysis I did of the factors associated with variation in median household income in 229 U.S. metropolitan areas. I'll try to give the least technical presentation that I can of the data as I discuss my findings. ***A quick disclaimer on causation: Statistical models are amazing tools, but it's often the respo

As my time in graduate school continues, my research within political science has expanded to yet another subfield: Urban Politics. Keeping with the theme of conducting research at the urban level, rather than at the federal or international level, for this latest research paper (linked below) I looked at variation in the size of the lower, middle, and upper class in 229 U.S. metropolitan areas and explored the effect of factors related to educational attainment, the number of people whose degrees were in particular fields of study, and the size of the manufacturing sector (among other variables) on class size in 2014 and the net change in class size from 2000 to 2014. My findings were many and varied, but if you want the quick version, just read the intro and the conclusion. But if you're feeling especially adventurous (and have nothing better to do...) go ahead and read the whole thing ;). Among the more comforting findings from my analysis was the positive relationship I found