Handbook of Causal Analysis for Social Research - Paperback

by Stephen L. Morgan (Editor)

This book reviews the tremendous progress of the past 15 years in the causal analysis of non-experimental data, also known as observational data, and shows how to use state-of-the-art methods for causal analysis in basic and applied empirical scholarship.

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What constitutes a causal explanation, and must an explanation be causal? What warrants a causal inference, as opposed to a descriptive regularity? What techniques are available to detect when causal effects are present, and when can these techniques be used to identify the relative importance of these effects? What complications do the interactions of individuals create for these techniques? When can mixed methods of analysis be used to deepen causal accounts? Must causal claims include generative mechanisms, and how effective are empirical methods designed to discover them? The Handbook of Causal Analysis for Social Research tackles these questions with nineteen chapters from leading scholars in sociology, statistics, public health, computer science, and human development.

Author Biography

Stephen L. Morgan is the Jan Rock Zubrow '77 Professor in the Social Sciences at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.