Methods resources

In the course of this module we will be encountering a variety of empirical methods and research designs. Below is an indicative list of methodological resources offering a useful entry point to both qualitative and quantitative research designs. Consulting and translating into practice relevant methodological resources – not constrained to the list below – is particularly important for the assessment.

Quantitative methods

Huntington-Klein, Nick. The effect: An introduction to research design and causality. Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2021. link

Imbens, Guido W. “Causal inference in the social sciences.” Annual Review of Statistics and Its Application 11 (2024): 123-152.

Difference-in-differences

Roth, Jonathan, Pedro HC Sant’Anna, Alyssa Bilinski, and John Poe. “What’s trending in difference-in-differences? A synthesis of the recent econometrics literature.” Journal of Econometrics 235, no. 2 (2023): 2218-2244.

Arkhangelsky, Dmitry, Susan Athey, David A. Hirshberg, Guido W. Imbens, and Stefan Wager. “Synthetic difference-in-differences.” American Economic Review 111, no. 12 (2021): 4088-4118.

Regression discontinuity

Cattaneo, Matias D., and Rocio Titiunik. “Regression discontinuity designs.” Annual Review of Economics 14, no. 1 (2022): 821-851.

Qualitative methods

Gerring, John. “Qualitative methods.” Annual Review of Political Science 20, no. 1 (2017): 15-36.

Humphreys, Macartan, and Alan M. Jacobs. Integrated Inferences: Causal Models for Qualitative and Mixed-Method Research. Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Rohlfing, Ingo, and Christina Isabel Zuber. “Check your truth conditions! Clarifying the relationship between theories of causation and social science methods for causal inference.” Sociological Methods & Research 50, no. 4 (2021): 1623-1659.

Collins, Caitlyn, Megan Tobias Neely, and Shamus Khan. ““Which cases do I need?” Constructing cases and observations in qualitative research.” Annual Review of Sociology 50 (2024): 21-40.

Process tracing

Ricks, Jacob I., and Amy H. Liu. “Process-tracing research designs: A practical guide.” PS: Political Science & Politics 51, no. 4 (2018): 842-846.

Beach, Derek. “It’s all about mechanisms–what process-tracing case studies should be tracing.” New Political Economy 21, no. 5 (2016): 463-472.

Controlled comparisons

Slater, Dan, and Daniel Ziblatt. “The enduring indispensability of the controlled comparison.” Comparative Political Studies 46, no. 10 (2013): 1301-1327.

Gisselquist, Rachel M. “Paired Comparison and Theory Development: Considerations for Case Selection.” PS: Political Science & Politics 47, no. 2 (2014): 477–84.

Tarrow, Sidney. “The strategy of paired comparison: Toward a theory of practice.” Comparative Political Studies 43, no. 2 (2010): 230-259.

Case studies

Gerring, John. “What is a case study and what is it good for?.” American Political Science Review 98, no. 2 (2004): 341-354.

Seawright, Jason, and John Gerring. “Case selection techniques in case study research: A menu of qualitative and quantitative options.” Political research quarterly 61, no. 2 (2008): 294-308.