http://sites.cardiff.ac.uk/qstep/events/cardiff-q-step-inaugural-event-thursday-18th-september-2014/

1. Why should undergraduate
social science students
choose quantitative methods?
Professor Patrick Sturgis
Director, NCRM
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

2. The Quantitative ‘Pipeline’
Doctoral
Training
Centres
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

3. NCRM 2014-2019
• Southampton-Manchester-Edinburgh
• Methodological research and training
• £6.25 million commissioned research programme
(consultation October 2014, call Summer 2015)
• Face-to-Face short course programme
• Online training portal
• Research events (cf Methods Festival)
• International exchange scheme
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

4. Key Questions
• What about the economists?
• How should we ‘sell’ the quantitative path?
• QM for all, or creating a small cadre of
specialists?
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

5. Declaration of Interest
Southampton was unsuccessful in its application
for a Q-Step Centre
Gggrrrr…
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

6. Q-Step Objectives
• “To benefit academic research”
• “To meet the needs of the wider labour
market”
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

7. Dingwall critique
“A clique of civil servants, policy wonks and
academics in some small elite centers complain
that they cannot recruit sociologists with the
skills they think they require. Consequently, all
sociologists must be obliged to acquire those
skills in order to fill the vacancies in this niche
labor market”
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

8. Q-Step Background Document
“the UK has a shortage of social scientists
trained in quantitative methods”
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

9. But hang on…
• …there are rather a lot of undergraduate
social scientists trained in QM
• They are called…economists
• 40,000 UG and 8000 PG each year
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

10. Economics’ exclusion from Q-Step
• Economics doesn’t have a problem/deficit in
quant methods
• Economists are, well, economists
• They have a particular way of conceptualising
things
• They are interested in ‘economic’ questions
• ‘Don’t leave it only to economists’
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

11. Changing face of Economics?
• Economists increasingly interested in
traditionally sociological/political/policy
questions
– Social mobility/labour market/education
– Well-being/decision-making/social networks
– Crime and criminal justice
• Methodological differences primarily
terminological/stylistic
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

12. Hug an economist
• Does current approach risk raising/solidifying
disciplinary boundaries?
• Might we not consider turning/shifting
economists into sociologists/policy analysts?
• This may be more effective than turning qual
sociologists into quant
• (though would not have desired effect of
shifting disciplinary focus in sociology/politics)
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

13. Q-step doing this to some extent?
• Oxford Q-Step students studying PPE
• Most have A/A* in A level maths
• Exposure to data and real problems (rather
than formal theory and maths)
• Turning potential economists into quant
sociologists/political scientists?
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

14. How to sell quants to potential
customers?
• Quant methods provides you with powerful
way of understanding the world
• Interesting and fun
• Crucial for active/critical citizenship
• Improved employment prospects and higher
earnings
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

15. Direct evidence of employability
earnings return to quant methods
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

16. Indirect Evidence
• University economists earn more than other
social scientists (‘market supplement’)
• Surveys of employers say graduates lack
quantitative skills
• Graduate earnings by degree subject?
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

17. Lift-time earnings by degree subject
Walker, I & Zhu, Y. (2011) Differences by degree: Evidence of the net financial rates of return to
undergraduate study for England and Wales, Economics of Education Review, 30 (1177-1186).
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

18. Earnings Return?
• So, diverting a YP from STEM or LEM into
OSS would (in expectation) reduce their
lifetime earnings!
• No evidence for someone who would have
studied OSS anyway but focus (counter-factually)
on Quant Methods
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

19. Quants for all?
• Should Q-step attempt to ensure all social science
students get basic QM?
• Or should it be aiming to produce small cohorts of
skilled quantitative analysts?
• Not necessarily contradictory objectives
• But, with limited resource, each unlikely to be
optimised
• ESRC/Nuffield objectives more in line with cadre of
specialists?
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

20. Conclusions
• Risks to excluding economists from the party
• Think creatively about how to ‘convert’ UG/PG
economists to other disciplinary areas?
• Better evidence needed on labour market demand, job
prospects, earnings return
• Q-Step offers great opportunity for improving this
evidence base
• In the meantime, caution needed on selling Q-Step on
employability and earnings
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council