{"id":2687,"date":"2018-05-11T14:40:44","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T18:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cyrussamii.com\/?p=2687"},"modified":"2018-05-11T16:23:12","modified_gmt":"2018-05-11T20:23:12","slug":"descriptive-quantitative-work-in-political-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cyrussamii.com\/?p=2687","title":{"rendered":"Descriptive quantitative work in political science"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here is a roundup of replies to a question I posted on Twitter regarding descriptive quantitative research in political science:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">What\u2019s your favorite example of a descriptive quantitative paper in political science\u2014not trying to estimate a causal effect or fit a model, but rather use good measurement to challenge conventional wisdom about state of the world?<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Cyrus Samii (@cdsamii) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cdsamii\/status\/994933178769997825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<p>Outside political science, I can think of a number of examples, although I was interested in political examples per se, and particularly ones that are published as papers:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">i like this one quite a bit:<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9avMy2y6kB\">https:\/\/t.co\/9avMy2y6kB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Josh McCrain (@joshmccrain) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joshmccrain\/status\/994933652621594624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I can think of many in econ too\u2014eg, \u201cEconomic Lives of the Poor\u201d, \u201cFinancial Diaries\u201d, or Bloom\/Van Reenan management stuff. I am specifically wondering about poli sci though.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Cyrus Samii (@cdsamii) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cdsamii\/status\/994934462935953409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">i did a political science version of the AER lobbying papers and is definitely descriptive:<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GUdFh8cQR8\">https:\/\/t.co\/GUdFh8cQR8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Josh McCrain (@joshmccrain) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joshmccrain\/status\/994938144960208896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hands down: Blattman, C., &amp; Miguel, E. (2010). Civil war. Journal of Economic literature, 48(1), 3-57.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Mark Shadden (@MarkShadden1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarkShadden1\/status\/994956321928765440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In economics, I would say the classic &quot;Law and Finance&quot;. In poli sci, definitely Wand et al. (2001) on butterfly ballots (is this a descriptive paper?)<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ye Wang (@yezhehuzhi) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/yezhehuzhi\/status\/994959455228977152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<p>One thing that distinguishes poli sci from, say, econ is that poli sci has lots of books, many of which contain important descriptive work, as in this:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">No a paper, but I think the descriptive sections of Unequal Democracy by Bartels are amazing.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tiago Ventura (@_Tiagoventura) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_Tiagoventura\/status\/994934524881580032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, I was mostly interested in work published in paper form.<\/p>\n<p>An important class of measurement contributions in poli sci include dimension reduction, scaling, and latent variable estimation methods. This includes things like ideal point estimation as well as analyses of text:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Example 1:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Wouldn\u2019t a lot of the text as data stuff fit here?<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Claire Adida (@ClaireAdida) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ClaireAdida\/status\/994936553498537984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Yes for sure. Do you have a favorite?<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Cyrus Samii (@cdsamii) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cdsamii\/status\/994937467466928128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">clearly, anything written by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mollyeroberts?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@mollyeroberts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Claire Adida (@ClaireAdida) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ClaireAdida\/status\/994994397266591744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">King, Pan, Roberts (2013) on Chinese censorship. There are causal interpretations in there, but it&#39;s mostly just a beautiful descriptive paper.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Daniel de Kadt (@dandekadt) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dandekadt\/status\/995022744742842368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Example 2:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Poole and Rosenthal (1985)<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ryan D. Enos (@RyanDEnos) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RyanDEnos\/status\/994941769853865989?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Example 3:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;Democracy as a Latent Variable&quot; by Treier and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SimonJackman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SimonJackman<\/a> is a very nice (dare I say &#39;important&#39;?) piece in this area <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/aftw9uolb1\">https:\/\/t.co\/aftw9uolb1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Arthur Spirling (@arthur_spirling) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/arthur_spirling\/status\/994951343038259201?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Example 4:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Farris 2014 in the APSR<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tore Wig (@torewig) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/torewig\/status\/994953217682309121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-cards=\"hidden\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Fariss (2014) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/R48tzm6OW4\">https:\/\/t.co\/R48tzm6OW4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Yonatan Lupu (@yonatanlupu) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/yonatanlupu\/status\/994965763533561856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<p>(Chris&#8217;s last name is spelled Fariss, by the way.)<\/p>\n<p>Poli sci scholars have also done a lot to elaborate small area estimation techniques and use them in analyzing survey data, as with the &#8220;MRP&#8221; papers, e.g.:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">public opinion papers using MRP, especially Broockman and Skovron <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Hyok7uJpDy\">https:\/\/t.co\/Hyok7uJpDy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Alexander Sahn (@sahnicboom) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sahnicboom\/status\/994959726847782914?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<p>Taxonomy, that is, organizing cases on the basis of conceptual categories, is another class of measurement-related work:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This is a nice example of simple classification. It&#39;s straightforward and improves on other classifications. We don&#39;t do too much taxonomy these days. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fXQcSo9Myc\">https:\/\/t.co\/fXQcSo9Myc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Peter Loewen (@PeejLoewen) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PeejLoewen\/status\/994950538943922176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<p>Sometimes descriptive work can indirectly inform causal questions:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Ansolabehere &amp; Snyder paper showing overtime trends in inc. adv. for all statewide offices are identical to those for Congress. Purely descriptive, but suggests it&#39;s unlikely change in congressional inc. adv. is due to gerrymandering since the other offices have fixed districts.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ethan BdM (@ethanbdm) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ethanbdm\/status\/994940463642742786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<p>What I was most interested in were creative contributions that don&#8217;t apply especially new statistical methods, but are the result of shoe-leather effort that allows us to view important dynamics more clearly.  Examples:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Gelman\/Margalit&#39;s penumbras paper has considerable amounts of interesting descriptive stats. Not exactly challenging conv. wisdom, but has interesting implications. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Y0tsdvaBrs\">https:\/\/t.co\/Y0tsdvaBrs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Michael Aklin (@MichaelAklin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MichaelAklin\/status\/994942076776263680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Converse 64<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Yphtach Lelkes (@ylelkes) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ylelkes\/status\/994949635511906305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWhy is there so little money in politics?\u201d is another great example<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Andy Hall (@andrewbhall) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/andrewbhall\/status\/994948525992509440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">McDonald, M.P. and Popkin, S.L., 2001. The myth of the vanishing voter. American Political Science Review, 95(4), pp.963-974. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ElectProject?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ElectProject<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Eric D. Lawrence (@eric_d_lawrence) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/eric_d_lawrence\/status\/994962792414416897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I\u2019d suggest \u201cthe rational public\u201d and other work on \u2018mood\u2019 that demonstrates (not causally) that collective public opinion seems to be thermostatic, eg wlezien 1995<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tom O&#39;Grady (@DrTomD_OG) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrTomD_OG\/status\/995018912336089088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Not published yet but <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YRCcAItVcT\">https:\/\/t.co\/YRCcAItVcT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Kevin Munger (@kmmunger) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kmmunger\/status\/995025620118720512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a &#8220;hard copy&#8221; of this post (which I will update again after all edits are in), for archival sake, in anticipation of potential Twitter link instability: <a href=\"https:\/\/cyrussamii.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Descriptive-quantitative-work-in-political-science-Cyrus-Samii.pdf\">[PDF]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here is a roundup of replies to a question I posted on Twitter regarding descriptive quantitative research in political science: What\u2019s your favorite example of a descriptive quantitative paper in political science\u2014not trying to estimate a causal effect or fit a model, but rather use good measurement to challenge conventional wisdom about state of the &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cyrussamii.com\/?p=2687\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Descriptive quantitative work in political science&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyrussamii.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyrussamii.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyrussamii.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyrussamii.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyrussamii.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2687"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/cyrussamii.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2700,"href":"https:\/\/cyrussamii.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2687\/revisions\/2700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyrussamii.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyrussamii.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyrussamii.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}