Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-c4bhq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-08T20:13:11.370Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bayesian Inference for Comparative Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Bruce Western  and
Simon Jackman
Bruce Western
Affiliation:
Princeton University
Simon Jackman
Affiliation:
University of Rochester
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Regression analysis in comparative research suffers from two distinct problems of statistical inference. First, because the data constitute all the available observations from a population, conventional inference based on the long-run behavior of a repeatable data mechanism is not appropriate. Second, the small and collinear data sets of comparative research yield imprecise estimates of the effects of explanatory variables. We describe a Bayesian approach to statistical inference that provides a unified solution to these two problems. This approach is illustrated in a comparative analysis of unionization.

Type
Research Notes
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 88 , Issue 2 , June 1994 , pp. 412 - 423
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Alvarez, R. Michael, Garrett, Geoffrey, and Lange, Peter. 1991. “Government Partisanship, Labor Organization, and Macro-economic Performance.” American Political Science Review 85:539–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnett, Vic. 1982. Comparative Statistical Inference. 2d ed. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Barrilleaux, Charles J., and Miller, Mark E.. 1988. “The Political Economy of State Medicaid Policy.” American Political Science Review 82:1089–1107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, Nathaniel, Alvarez, R. Michael, Garrett, Geoffrey, Katz, Jonathan, and Lange, Peter. 1993. “Government Partisanship, Labor Organization, and Macroeconomic Performance: A Corrigendum.” American Political Science Review 87:945–948.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belsley, David A. 1991. Conditioning Diagnostics: Collinearity and Weak Data in Regression. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Berk, Richard A., Western, Bruce, and Weiss, Robert. 1993. “Statistical Inference for Apparent Populations.” University of California, Los Angeles. Typescript.Google Scholar
Cochran, William G. 1953. Sampling Techniques. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Cook, R. Dennis, and Weisberg, Sanford. 1982. Residuals and Influence in Regression. New York: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Efron, Bradley. 1986. “Why Isn't Everyone a Bayesian?” American Statistician 40:1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erikson, Robert S., Mclver, John P., and Wright, Gerald C. Jr. 1987. “State Political Culture and Public Opinion.” American Political Science Review 81:797–813.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Finetti, Bruno. 1974. Theory of Probability: A Critical Introductory Treatment. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Fisher, Ronald A. 1935. The Design of Experiments. 1st ed.London: Oliver & Boyd.Google Scholar
Fox, John. 1990. “Describing Univariate Distributions.” In Modern Methods of Data Analysis, ed. Fox, John and Long, J. Scott. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Freedman, D. A., and Lane, David. 1983. “Significance Testing in a Nonstochastic Setting.” In A Festschrift for Erich L. Lehman, ed. Bickel, Peter J., Doksum, Kjell A., and Hodges, J. L.. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Golden, Miriam. 1993. “The Dynamics of Trade Unionism and National Economic Performance.” American Political Science Review 87:439–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gorin, Zeev. 1980. “Income Inequality in the Marxist Theory of Development: A Cross-National Test.” In Comparative Social Research, ed. Tomasson, Richard. Greenwich, CT: 3A1.Google Scholar
Granger, C. W. J., ed. 1990. Modelling Economic Series. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Hastie, Trevor J., and Tibshirani, Robert J.. 1990. Generalized Additive Models. Chapman & Hall. London.Google Scholar
Jackman, Robert W. 1985. “Cross-national Statistical Research and the Study of Comparative Politics.” American Journal of Political Science 29:161–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kjellberg, Anders. 1983. Facklig Organisering i Tolv Länder. Lund: Arkiv.Google Scholar
Lange, Peter, and Garrett, Geoffrey. 1985. “The Politics of Growth: Strategic Interaction and Economic Performance in the Advanced Industrial Democracies, 1974–1980.” Journal of Politics 47:792–827.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lange, Peter, and Garrett, Geoffrey. 1987. “The Politics of Growth Reconsidered.” Journal of Politics 49:257–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Learner, Edward E. 1978. Specification Searches. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Learner, Edward E. 1983. “Let's Take the Con out of Econometrics.” American Economic Review 23:31–43.Google Scholar
Learner, Edward E. 1991. “A Bayesian Perspective on Inference from Macro-economic Data.” Scandinavian Journal of Economics 93:225–48.Google Scholar
Lee, Peter M. 1989. Bayesian Statistics: An Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pettit, L. I. 1985. “Diagnostics in Bayesian Model Choice.” Statistician 35:183–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettit, L. I., and Smith, A. F. M.. 1986. “Outliers and Influential observations in Linear Models.” In Bayesian Statistics 2, ed. Bernardo, J. M., DeGroot, M. H., Lindley, D. V., and Smith, A. F. M.. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.Google Scholar
Pollard, William E. 1986. Bayesian Statistics for Evaluation Research: An Introduction. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Powell, G. Bingham Jr., 1982. Contemporary Democracies. Cambridge: Harvard.Google Scholar
Press, S. James. 1989. Bayesian Statistics: Principles, Models and Applications. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Radcliff, Benjamin. 1992. “The Welfare State, Turnout, and the Economy: A Comparative Analysis.” American Political Science Review 86:444–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Remmer, Karen L. 1991. “The Political Impact of Economic Crisis in Latin America in the 1980s.” American Political Science Review 85:777–800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, John D. 1990. “Transaction-Cost Economics and Cross-national Patterns of Industrial Conflict: A Comparative Institutional Analysis.” American Journal of Political Science 34:153–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephens, John; Wallerstein, Michael. 1991. “Industrial Concentration, Country Size, and Trade Union Membership.” American Political Science Review 85:941–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swank, Duane H. 1988. “The Political Economy of Government Domestic Expenditure in the Affluent Democracies, 1960–1980.” American Journal of Political Science 32:1120–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swank, Duane H. 1992. “Politics and the Structural Dependence of the State in Democratic Capitalist Nations.” American Political Science Reviews. 86:38–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanner, Martin A. 1993. Tools for Statistical Inference: Methods for the Exploration of Posterior Distributions and Likelihood Functions. 2d ed.New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallerstein, Michael. 1989. “Union Organization in Advanced Industrial Democracies.” American Political Science Review 83:481–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weede, E. 1986. “Sectoral Reallocation, Distributional Coalitions and the Welfare State as Determinants of Economic Growth Rates in Industrialized Democracies.” European Journal of Political Research 14:501–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Western, Bruce. N.d. “Unionization and Labor Market Institutions in Advanced Capitalist Countries, 1950–1985.” American Journal of Sociology ForthcomingGoogle Scholar
Wilensky, Harold L. 1981. “Leftism, Catholicism, Democratic Corporatism: The Role of Political Parties in Recent Welfare State Development.” In The Development of Welfare States in Europe and America, ed. Flora, Peter and Heidenheimer, Arnold J.. New Brunswick: Transaction Books.Google Scholar
Williams, John T. 1991. “The Political Manipulation of Macroeconomic Policy.” American Political Science Review 84:765–95.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.