title: Understanding Regression Analysis: An Introductory Guide (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences)
author:  Larry D. Schroeder 
description: Dr. Larry Schroeder, Professor of Public Administration Maxwell Professor of Teaching Excellence, and Senior Research Associate in the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University is a public finance economist with primary interest in state and local public finance and financial management. He has conducted research on a variety of state and local government fiscal issues both in the U.S. and abroad. Much of his current research is directed at public finance issues arising in developing and transition economies. He is particularly interested in problems associated with financing the construction and maintenance of public infrastructure in these environments as well as the broader issues of decentralization, intergovernmental fiscal relations, and the effects of institutional arrangements on the provision of public services. He is the co-author of several books and has written a large number of articles addressing these subjects. Professor Schroeder has consulted with and led policy research projects sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development, the World Bank, and the United Nations Capital Development Fund in numerous countries, especially in South and Southeast Asia, but also in Africa and Eastern Europe. In 1998-99 he was a Visiting Professor at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang Malaysia and was a Visiting Research Fellow at the National College of Public Administration and Governance at the University of the Philippines (Diliman Campus) in Quezon City, Philippines in 2005-06. Professor Schroeder earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin in 1971. During the early 1970s he was on the economics faculty at Georgia State University. In 1977 he joined the Departments of Public Administration and Economics at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University and served here until 1994 when he was a Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. He rejoined The Maxwell School faculty in 1998.
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  **Regression Analysis**
  
  
  With the rise of “big data,” there is an increasing demand to learn the skills
  needed to undertake sound quantitative analysis without requiring students to
  spend too much time on high-level math and proofs. This book provides an
  efficient alternative approach, with more time devoted to the practical
  aspects of regression analysis and how to recognize the most common pitfalls.
  
  
  By doing so, the book will better prepare readers for conducting,
  interpreting, and assessing regression analyses, while simultaneously making
  the material simpler and more enjoyable to learn.
  
  
  Logical and practical in approach, _Regression Analysis_ teaches: (1) the
  tools for conducting regressions; (2) the concepts needed to design optimal
  regression models (based on avoiding the pitfalls); and (3) the proper
  interpretations of regressions. Furthermore, this book emphasizes honesty in
  research, with a prevalent lesson being that statistical sig