What Is a Statistical Grammar and Where Does It Come From?

In this episode we talk with Sarah Hamersma about statistical grammar.

Sarah Hamersma is an Associate Professor of Public Administration and International Affairs and a Senior Research Associate in the Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University.

Sebastian Tello-Trillo is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy in the University of Virginia.

Alex Hollingsworth is an Associate Professor of Economics at the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs in Indiana University.

Notes from the episode

• A link to Sarah’s essay on statistical grammar here, https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/docs/default-source/research/cpr/faculty/hamersma-statsgrammarfail-2022-accessible.pdf
• A link to Sarah’s essay, Uncertainty: The beauty and bedrock of statistics, https://comment.org/uncertainty-the-beauty-and-bedrock-of-statistics/
• A video lecture including the analogy for the golem of Prague and statistical models: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cclUd_HoRlo
• The Scientific American article about the developemtn and approval of the race specific drug BiDil, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/race-in-a-bottle/

Recommendations of the Week

• Sarah’s tip of the week is to read Tish Harrison Warren in the New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/22/opinion/faith-spirituality.html
• Alex recommends using the @ symbol when using stata reshape command. See here for more details, https://www.stata.com/manuals/dreshape.pdf
• Sebastian recommends going on a short vacation at the end of the semester to help transition to summer research.