Title:      Circular Data in Political Science and How to Handle
It

Authors:    Jeff Gill, Dominik Hangartner

Entrydate:  2008-08-25 10:26:58

Keywords:   circular data, von Mises distribution, clock and
calendar effects, directional data, radial measures, Iraq
casualties, party movement model

Abstract:   There has been no attention to circular (purely
cyclical) data in political science research. We show that such
data exists and is generally mishandled by models that do not
take into account the inherently recycling nature of some
phenomenon. Clock and calendar effects are the obvious cases,
but directional data exists as well. We develop a modeling
framework based on the von Mises distribution and apply it to
two datasets: casualties in the second Iraq war and party
movement in a two-dimensional ideological space. Results clearly
demonstrate the importance of circular regression models to
handle periodic and directional data. 

http://polmeth.wustl.edu/retrieve.php?id=824

**********************************************************
             Political Methodology E-Mail List
   Editors: Melanie Goodrich, <[log in to unmask]>
            Delia Bailey, <[log in to unmask]>
**********************************************************
        Send messages to [log in to unmask]
  To join the list, cancel your subscription, or modify
           your subscription settings visit:

          http://polmeth.wustl.edu/polmeth.php

**********************************************************