2. Two main approaches to social science
analysis:
Quantitative Qualitative
analysis analysis
Quantitative versus Qualitative Analysis in Social Sciences
OpenInnova:David López
3. Quantitative analysis:
◦ Large-N approach (extensive use of cross-
sectional data)
Theory
Empirical
Model
Data
Multivariate
Analysis
Large N approach. Provides answers to: what causes
revolutions ? OpenInnova:David López
4. Qualitative analysis:
◦ Small-N approach (qualitative comparisons of
cases)
Cases
“Soft Qualitative
Model” analysis
Causal
chains
Small-N approach. Provides answers to: what caused the
French revolution ? OpenInnova:David López
5. When it comes to policy analysis, such as innovation
regimes and R&D, statistical inference is not
enough, holistic approaches are needed in order to:
◦ Explore several combinations and their consequences.
◦ Conduct context-specific assessments.
For instance: What It takes to avoid poverty ?
◦ Does college education make a difference for married white
males from families with good incomes ?
◦ And college education for unmarried black females from
low-income families ?
Moreover, what about scenarios with limited data
such as OECD innovation database for instance ?
Small-N analysis in policy research (innovation is about policy
after all) OpenInnova:David López
6. Small-N approaches consider cases as combinations
of causally relevant conditions
College High Parent High Poverty Number
Educated Parental College AFQT avoidance of cases
income educated Score
1 0 0 0 0 0 30
2 0 0 0 1 0 3
3 0 0 1 0 ? 4
….
16 1 1 1 1 1 23
Causal conditions Outcome
Goal of the analysis: Identify different combinations of
case characteristics explicitly linked to poverty
avoidance.
Small-N Analysis by example: Avoiding poverty (I) López
OpenInnova:David
7. But…. what do we mean by “High parental
income” ???
How strong is the inference:
CollegeAvoiding poverty
Charles Ragin suggests Fuzzy-set logic.
High
High parental
parental income
income
Low
Low
parental
parental
income
income
Small-N Analysis : Fuzzy-set approach OpenInnova:David López
8. Y
Xi
Xi→Y
Consistenc y ( X i Yi ) (min( X i , Yi )) (Xi)
Small-N Analysis: Sufficiency && Consistency
OpenInnova:David López
9. Xi
Y
Y →Xi
Consistenc y (Y i Xi) (min( X i , Y i )) (Y i )
Small-N Analysis: Necessity && ConsistencyOpenInnova:David López
10. Y Y Y
Xi2
Xi
Xi
Xi1
Xi→Y Xi→Y
X1* X2 →Y
Coverage ( X i Yi ) (min( X i , Y i )) (Y i )
Small-N Analysis: Sufficiency && Coverage OpenInnova:David López
14. Least parsimonious solution (remainders not considered)
If all five conditions are present then is sufficient for a democracy to
survive.
But NOTurban and NOTindustrial does not really seem to matter
much:
DEVELOPED*LITERATE*STABLE SURVIVAL
fzQCA in Action: Democracies in interwar Europe (1918-1936)
OpenInnova:David López
15. Considering Breakdown instead of Survival as the outcome of interest:
Two sufficient conditions emerge:
NOT DEVELOPED * NOT URBAN * NOT INDUSTRIAL BREAKDOWN
DEVELOPED*LITERATE*INDUSTRIAL*NOT STABLE BREAKDOWN
fzQCA in Action: Democracies in interwar Europe (1918-1936)
OpenInnova:David López
16. Nested analysis approach (Evan S. Lieberman)
The best of both worlds ? Just adding extra workload ?
OpenInnova:David López