scholarly journals When less conditioning provides better estimates: overcontrol and endogenous selection biases in research on intergenerational mobility

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Grätz
Keyword(s):  
Intergenerational Mobility ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Omitted Variable Bias ◽  
Confounding Variables ◽  
Endogenous Selection ◽  
Variable Bias ◽  
Counterfactual Approach

AbstractThe counterfactual approach to causality has become the dominant approach to understand causality in contemporary social science research. Whilst most sociologists are aware that unobserved, confounding variables may bias the estimates of causal effects (omitted variable bias), the threats of overcontrol and endogenous selection biases are less well known. In particular, widely used practices in research on intergenerational mobility are affected by these biases. I review four of these practices from the viewpoint of the counterfactual approach to causality and show why overcontrol and endogenous selection biases arise when these practices are implemented. I use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) to demonstrate the practical consequences of these biases for conclusions about intergenerational mobility. I conclude that future research on intergenerational mobility should reflect more upon the possibilities of bias introduced by conditioning on variables.

scholarly journals Lock-In and Team Effects

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 376-387
Author(s):  
Trey Dronyk-Trosper ◽  
Brandli Stitzel
Keyword(s):  
Set Covering ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Omitted Variable Bias ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Heterogeneous Effects ◽  
Team Success ◽  
Variable Bias ◽  
Lock In ◽  
Least Squares Approach

How important is recruiting to a football program’s success? While prior research has attempted to answer this question, we utilize an extensive panel set covering 13 years of games along with a two-stage least squares approach to investigate the effects of recruiting on team success. This article also includes new control variables to account for omitted variable bias that prior work may have missed. We also split our sample to investigate whether recruiting displays heterogeneous effects across schools. Additionally, we find evidence that the benefits of recruiting are driven by team-specific effects, indicating that team success may be more heavily derived from the ability of teams to harness and improve their recruits than their ability to utilize each athlete’s raw abilities. This leads to important revelations regarding future research into both the value of recruits and what drives a football team’s success.

Citizenship

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Mettler ◽  
Alexis Walker
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Political Rights

Besides its impact on poverty, inequality, and economic security, social policy also bears crucial significance for the meaning and quality of citizenship in a political community. Historical research on American political development has revealed that ideas about citizenship played a central role in the development of social policy. Throughout U.S. history, policy makers have often justified social policies on the basis that they would develop Americans' civic capacity and inculcate participatory norms. In addition, U.S. social policy has shaped citizens' experiences of government and their political participation and attitudes. Established social policies have influenced citizens' ability to practice their political rights, the extent of solidarity or division in society, and people's inclination to engage in civic life. In sum, American civil and political rights cannot be fully understood apart from their interaction with social rights and provision. This essay offers an introduction to thinking about the relationship between citizenship and social policy. It considers the place of social policy in different theoretical understandings of citizenship in social science research. It explores the mechanisms through which social policies can influence citizenship, tracing their impact on: membership, identity, and belonging; political attitudes; and political participation and other forms of civic involvement. Finally, it considers the contemporary relationship between social policy and citizenship and offer directions for future research on this relationship.

The Nature and Impact of Policy-Induced Partnerships Between Research and Practice Communities

1996 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Bradley Cousins ◽  
Marielle Simon
Keyword(s):  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Grant Application ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Allocation Policy ◽  
Grant Program ◽  
Grant Allocation

To enhance the relevance and usefulness of social science research, large-scale research grant allocation policies are emphasizing, if not requiring, the formation of research partnerships between researchers and members of the community of practice. The emergence of a revisionist conception of traditional dissemination and utilization theoretical frameworks is consistent with this policy direction, but supportive empirical evidence remains thin. This study reports on a multi-method evaluation of a major Canadian strategic grant program that has such partnership guidelines. Surveys of 74 funded projects and four case profiles and interviews with researchers, members of the community of practice, and grant application adjudicators concerning a strategic grant program called Education and Work in a Changing Society provided the primary basis for investigating the nature and impact of policy-induced partnerships. Results show favorable effects of partnerships on research and dissemination strategies and impact in the practice community, but ideological and pragmatic issues surfaced as inhibitory factors. The results are discussed in terms of implications for the revisionist dissemination and utilization framework, the role of granting agencies and ramifications for future research and grant allocation policy.

scholarly journals Casino capitalism in the era of COVID-19: examining Macau’s pandemic response

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Loretta Lou
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Economic Resilience ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Gambling Industry ◽  
Tax Revenues ◽  
Pandemic Response ◽  
The Government

Purpose This purpose of this paper is to explain Macau’s successful pandemic response through an analysis of its social, political and economic landscapes. In particular, it focusses on the economic relief brought by casino capitalism in this era of COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach As mobility is highly restricted during the coronavirus pandemic, digital technologies have become central to ongoing social science research. Thanks to videoconferencing programmes such as Zoom, Facetime and WhatsApp, the author was able to carry out virtual interviews with 13 local people from different sectors of Macau in July 2020. In addition to in-depth interviews, the author also undertook an extensive review of the Macau government’s pandemic policies. Findings This paper argues that the Macau government’s swift and effective coronavirus policies are deeply intertwined with the urban fabric and political economy of the city’s casino capitalism, which endowed the government with surplus funds and an infrastructure that enabled the implementation of an array of strict measures that few other countries could afford to subsidise. Factors that have led to Macau’s extraordinarily low rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths include: competent leadership and the public’s high compliance with mandatory health measures; the generous benefits and financial support for citizens and businesses; and the compulsory quarantine required of all incoming travellers, who are lodged in hotel rooms left empty when casino tourists stopped coming. All of these measures have been made possible by a political economy backed by the peculiarities of casino capitalism and its resultant tax revenues. Research limitations/implications Future research could compare the case of Macau with other small but affluent economies (ideally economies that do not depend on the gambling industry) to ascertain the role of casino capitalism in building up economic resilience. Originality/value Although previous studies tend to emphasise the negative impacts of casino capitalism, this paper shows how tax revenues and infrastructure from the gambling industry can make a contribution to the host society in times of crisis.

Studying Electoral Persuasion Using Online Experiments

2019 ◽  
pp. 1015-1036
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Leeper
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Internal Validity ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Online Experiments ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Online Experimentation ◽  
Experimental Realism

Online experimental methods have become a major part of contemporary social science research. Yet the method is also controversial and experiments are frequently misunderstood. This chapter introduces online experimentation as a method, by explaining the logic of experimental design for causal inference. While experiments can be deployed in almost any setting, online experiments tend to take two forms: online survey experiments and experiments in naturalistic online environments. Discussing the advantages and disadvantages of these types relative to each other and relative to their offline analogues, the chapter demonstrates ways that experimentation has been used to learn about political behavior, media and campaign dynamics, and public opinion. Emphasizing trade-offs between internal validity, experimental realism, and external validity, the chapter demonstrates how researchers have used online platforms in tandem with randomization to gain insights into both online and offline phenomena. Though experiments are sometimes seen as trading off external for internal validity, this is not an accurate depiction of all experimental work. Rather, online experiments exist on spectrums that trade-off these features to varying degrees. And with those trade-offs come key challenges related to experimental control, the generalizability of experimental results across settings, units, treatments, and outcomes, and the ethics of online experimentation. The chapter concludes by suggesting how future research might innovatively push beyond existing work.

The Influence of Anogenital Injury on Women’s Willingness to Engage With the Criminal Justice Process After Rape

2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 968-983 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie Sue Fisher ◽  
Alyssa Kaplan ◽  
Mia Budescu ◽  
Jamison Fargo ◽  
Deborah Tiller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Sexual Intercourse ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
Willingness To Engage

Medical-legal-social science research has documented that nongenital and/or anogenital injuries play a significant role throughout the criminal justice system from victims reporting to judges determining the length of a sentence. What remains an open question is whether the documentation of anogenital injury influences women’s willingness to engage in the criminal justice system. A sample of women age 21 years and older residing in an urban area were asked about willingness to report to police, file charges, and work with the courts to prosecute after rape. Questions were framed with a qualifying statement about the forensic examination being able to detect injury related to forced sexual intercourse. Results show that women had a high willingness to act if the examination could detect anogenital injury and women with and without a history of forced sexual intercourse had significant differences in their responses to these questions. Implications for health care, criminal justice system, and future research are discussed.

scholarly journals Fifty Years of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics: Past, Present, and Future

2018 ◽  
Vol 680 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
David S. Johnson ◽  
Katherine A. McGonagle ◽  
Vicki A. Freedman ◽  
Narayan Sastry
Keyword(s):  
Panel Study ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
War On Poverty ◽  
Income Dynamics ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Data Infrastructure ◽  
Current Survey ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Structural Aspects

The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) is the world’s longest running household panel survey. Since it began in 1968, it has collected data on the same families and their descendants, making it an essential part of America’s data infrastructure for empirically based social science research. The PSID arose from the War on Poverty as a tool for evaluating poverty dynamics, and this year (2018) marks 50 years of data collection. Because of its long history and distinctive design of following adult children as they form their own households, the PSID is uniquely positioned to address emerging social and behavioral research questions and related policy issues. This overview presents the design and structural aspects and its evolution over the past 50 years, the successes of the current survey, possible future directions, and the value of using the PSID to understand the challenges facing American families.

Prevalence and Demographic Differences in Work as a Calling in the United States: Results From a Nationally Representative Sample

2021 ◽  
pp. 106907272199569
Author(s):  
Micah J. White ◽  
Dylan R. Marsh ◽  
Bryan J. Dik ◽  
Cheryl L. Beseler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Demographic Differences ◽  
Life Study ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The U.S

Within the last two decades, social science research on work as a calling has rapidly grown. To date, knowledge regarding prevalence and demographic differences of calling in the United States derives from data collected mainly from regionally limited and/or occupationally homogenous samples. The present study used data from the Portraits of American Life Study, a nationally stratified panel study of religion in the United States (U.S.), to estimate calling’s prevalence in the U.S. Our findings represent the first known population estimates of seeking, perceiving, and living a calling in the U.S. Results revealed that calling is a relevant concept for many U.S. adults, with 43% endorsing “mostly true” or “totally true” to the statement “I have a calling to a particular kind of work.” Small differences for presence of and search for a calling emerged across age groups, employment statuses, and levels of importance of God or spirituality. For living a calling, significant differences were identified only for importance of God or spirituality, contrasting with previous findings that suggested that living a calling varies as a function of income and social status. Implications for research and practice are explored.

scholarly journals Experimental Philosophy and the Incentivisation Challenge: a Proposed Application of the Bayesian Truth Serum

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Schoenegger
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Philosophy ◽  
Incentive Compatibility ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Subjective Data ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Additional Costs

AbstractA key challenge in experimental social science research is the incentivisation of subjects such that they take the tasks presented to them seriously and answer honestly. If subject responses can be evaluated against an objective baseline, a standard way of incentivising participants is by rewarding them monetarily as a function of their performance. However, the subject area of experimental philosophy is such that this mode of incentivisation is not applicable as participant responses cannot easily be scored along a true-false spectrum by the experimenters. We claim that experimental philosophers’ neglect of and claims of unimportance about incentivisation mechanisms in their surveys and experiments has plausibly led to poorer data quality and worse conclusions drawn overall, potentially threatening the research programme of experimental philosophy in the long run. As a solution to this, we propose the adoption of the Bayesian Truth Serum, an incentive-compatible mechanism used in economics and marketing, designed for eliciting honest responding in subjective data designs by rewarding participant answers that are surprisingly common. We argue that the Bayesian Truth Serum (i) adequately addresses the issue of incentive compatibility in subjective data research designs and (ii) that it should be applied to the vast majority of research in experimental philosophy. Further, we (iii) provide an empirical application of the method, demonstrating its qualified impact on the distribution of answers on a number of standard experimental philosophy items and outline guidance for researchers aiming to apply this mechanism in future research by specifying the additional costs and design steps involved.

scholarly journals Gender and active travel: a qualitative data synthesis informed by machine learning

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Haynes ◽  
Judith Green ◽  
Ruth Garside ◽  
Michael P. Kelly ◽  
Cornelia Guell
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Practice Theory ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Active Travel ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Social Practice Theory ◽  
The Uk

Abstract Background Innovative approaches are required to move beyond individual approaches to behaviour change and develop more appropriate insights for the complex challenge of increasing population levels of activity. Recent research has drawn on social practice theory to describe the recursive and relational character of active living but to date most evidence is limited to small-scale qualitative research studies. To ‘upscale’ insights from individual contexts, we pooled data from five qualitative studies and used machine learning software to explore gendered patterns in the context of active travel. Methods We drew on 280 transcripts from five research projects conducted in the UK, including studies of a range of populations, travel modes and settings, to conduct unsupervised ‘topic modelling analysis’. Text analytics software, Leximancer, was used in the first phase of the analysis to produce inter-topic distance maps to illustrate inter-related ‘concepts’. The outputs from this first phase guided a second researcher-led interpretive analysis of text excerpts to infer meaning from the computer-generated outputs. Results Guided by social practice theory, we identified ‘interrelated’ and ‘relating’ practices across the pooled datasets. For this study we particularly focused on respondents’ commutes, travelling to and from work, and on differentiated experiences by gender. Women largely described their commute as multifunctional journeys that included the school run or shopping, whereas men described relatively linear journeys from A to B but highlighted ‘relating’ practices resulting from or due to their choice of commute mode or journey such as showering or relaxing. Secondly, we identify a difference in discourses about practices across the included datasets. Women spoke more about ‘subjective’, internal feelings of safety (‘I feel unsafe’), whereas men spoke more about external conditions (‘it is a dangerous road’). Conclusion This rare application of machine learning to qualitative social science research has helped to identify potentially important differences in co-occurrence of practices and discourses about practice between men’s and women’s accounts of travel across diverse contexts. These findings can inform future research and policy decisions for promoting travel-related social practices associated with increased physical activity that are appropriate across genders.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document