17.871Spring 2002Examples of previous research topicsQuestion Data source(s)Does the death penalty deter murders? U.S. Justice Department crimestatistics; Book of the StatesAre more senior members of Congress able to bring more “pork barrel”spending to their districts?Rice University data set onfederal spendingdisaggregated to CD level;Congressional DirectoryIs housing quality racially segregated in Boston? Census bureau dataWhat role do congressional committee politics play in the geographic allocationof federal spending on science and technologyRice University data set onfederal spendingdisaggregated to CD level;Congressional DirectoryDo political contributions to congressional candidates from PACs interested ingay rights increase representatives’ support for those rights?FEC data; Roll call data(ICPSR)Did the increase in the drinking age in the early 1980s reduce drunk-drivingfatalities among teenagers?Book of the States; Bureau ofJustice Statistics dataDoes requiring high school seniors to take high-stakes standardized exams hurtor help academic achievement?Data from Mass. Dept. ofEducation; Census dataDo congressional districts with more members of environmentalist groups electmore environmentalist members of Congress?Sierra Club membership data;ICPSR roll call dataWhat method of privitization has been the most economically effective inEastern Europe following the fall of communism?OECD data; World Bank dataDo actions taken by the U.S. to punish terrorism increase or decrease thenumber of terrorist actions aimed at the US?Coding of NY Times articles;Rand Corporation terrorismyearbookDoes the presence of large numbers of members of environmental groups in acongressional district cause members of Congress to be more pro-environmental in their voting records?Membership data fromgroups; interest group ratingsreported in reference works.Does requiring freshmen to live on campus cause drinking to be lowered amongfreshmen?Alcohol Use and Abuseamong American CollegeStudents, 1993 (ICPSR dataset)What explains the vigor with which local communities implement wetlandsregulations?Economic data from thecensus; legal information froman association ofgovernmentsWhat is the role of religiosity in attitudes among Jewish Israelis about “land forpeace”?Israeli Election StudyCharacteristics of projects that tend to succeed.1. Data easily available2. Lots of quantitative research already done3. Fields of American politics (public opinion and elections, esp.), public policy.4. Data-rich fields (in addition to American politics, elections and public opinion generally,political economy).Characteristics of projects that tend to flounder:1. Data hard to come by in the field2. Very little quantitative analysis or careful case studies already done3. Idiosyncratic phenomena, like terrorism4. Projects that rely on a survey in an unknown field5. Projects where you know the answer already and can’t be convinced you’re
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