The Necessity of Construct and External Validity for Generalized Causal Claims

Kevin Esterling, David Brady and Eric Schwitzgebel
Additional contact information
Kevin Esterling: UC Riverside

No 2s8w5, OSF Preprints from Center for Open Science

Abstract: The credibility revolution has facilitated tremendous progress in the social sciences by advancing design-based strategies that rely on internal validity to deductively identify causal effects. We demonstrate that prioritizing internal validity while neglecting construct and external validity prevents causal generalization and misleadingly converts a deductive claim of causality into a claim based on speculation and exploration -- undermining the very goals of the credibility revolution. We develop a formal framework of causal specification to demonstrate that internal, external and construct validity are jointly necessary for generalized claims regarding a causal effect. If one lacks construct validity, one cannot assign meaningful labels to the cause or to the outcome. If one lacks external validity, one cannot make statements about the conditions required for the cause to occur. Re-balancing considerations of internal, construct and external via causal specification preserves and advances the intent of the credibility revolution to understand causal effects.

Date: 2021-01-27
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://osf.io/download/6011b774dd222501f35923a6/

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:osfxxx:2s8w5

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/2s8w5

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in OSF Preprints from Center for Open Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by OSF ().