Conceptualizing Interstate Conflict: How Do Concept-Building Strategies Relate to Selection Effects?

J. Joseph Hewitt and Gary Goertz

International Interactions, 2005, vol. 31, issue 2, 163-182

Abstract: An essential, but often overlooked, role of concepts lies in how they constitute or define populations. Explicit choices made by researchers about concept structure are tied inextricably to the selection rule for identifying cases to include in analyses. Concept construction issues are absolutely crucial because the concept structure used interacts in various, usually hidden, ways with theories and hypotheses that researchers want to test. The concepts used to select cases may be correlated with common dependent variables hence producing selection bias. We illustrate this potential by exploring international crises as they have been conceptualized by the ICB Project. We show that two alternative conceptualizations of “crisis” produce populations that correlate with common ICB dependent variables. Our empirical analyses pay particular attention to variables related to power because they are particularly susceptible to being influenced by these selection effects.

Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1080/03050620590950114

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