Comparing Measures of Political Similarity

D. Scott Bennett and Matthew C. Rupert
Additional contact information
D. Scott Bennett: Department of Political Science Pennsylvania State University
Matthew C. Rupert: Department of Political Science Pennsylvania State University

Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2003, vol. 47, issue 3, 367-393

Abstract: Signorino and Ritter developed and advocated a new measure of the political similarity of states ( S ). They demonstrated logical flaws associated with the common Kendall's Ï„ b -based alliance similarity measure and showed that using S may yield quite different similarity estimates. But without a broader empirical comparison and analysis using S , the full empirical ramifications of this difference is not known. In this study, a comparison of S versus Ï„ b is conducted over a wide spatial and temporal domain, examining the relationship between S , Ï„ b , expected utility scores, and conflict. Despite significant positive correlations, important differences in the distribution of S and Ï„ b -based measures of alliance similarity are found. It should not be assumed that the measures are substitutable. Reanalysis of an important expected utility theory of war shows a stronger relationship between equilibrium predictions and conflict when S is used versus Ï„ b .

Keywords: international interaction game; expected utility; tau-b; S; alliance portfolio (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022002703252370 (text/html)

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:sae:jocore:v:47:y:2003:i:3:p:367-393

DOI: 10.1177/0022002703252370

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Conflict Resolution from Peace Science Society (International)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().