PAC Research Methodologies & Data Analysis 3

Question 1

A policy analyst is studying the effect of a minimum wage increase using data from states that adopted the policy and those that did not. This is an example of:

Accepted Answer

A quasi-experimental design

Answer

Quasi-experimental designs exploit natural variation in policy adoption (rather than random assignment) to estimate causal effects.

Question 2

In content analysis of policy documents, what is intercoder reliability used to assess?

Accepted Answer

The degree to which different coders assign the same codes to the same content

Answer

Intercoder reliability (e.g., Cohen's kappa) measures agreement between multiple coders, ensuring the coding scheme is applied consistently.

Question 3

Which statistical test is most appropriate for comparing the mean outcomes of three or more independent policy programs?

Accepted Answer

One-way ANOVA

Answer

One-way ANOVA tests whether the means of three or more independent groups differ significantly, making it ideal for comparing multiple programs.

Question 4

A regression model predicting recidivism rates has an R² of 0.12. How should this be interpreted?

Accepted Answer

The independent variables explain 12% of the variance in recidivism rates

Answer

R² represents the proportion of variance in the dependent variable explained by the independent variables in the model.

Question 5

When a policy evaluation uses administrative records (e.g., tax filings, school enrollment data) rather than surveys, this approach is called:

Accepted Answer

Secondary data analysis

Answer

Administrative records are secondary data—information collected for operational purposes that researchers repurpose for analysis.

(PAC) Policy Analyst Certification Practice Test

(PAC) Policy Analyst Certification Practice Test

PAC Research Methodologies & Data Analysis 3