Analyzing Relationships of Necessity Not Just in Kind But Also in Degree

Barbara Vis and Jan Dul

Sociological Methods & Research, 2018, vol. 47, issue 4, 872-899

Abstract: Analyzing relationships of necessity is important for both scholarly and applied research questions in the social sciences. An often-used technique for identifying such relationships— fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA)—has limited ability to make the most out of the data used. The set-theoretical technique fsQCA makes statements in kind (e.g., “a condition or configuration is necessary or not for an outcome†), thereby ignoring the variation in degree . We propose to apply a recently developed technique for identifying relationships of necessity that can make both statements in kind and in degree , thus making full use of variation in the data: Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA). With its ability to also make statements in degree (“a specific level of a condition is necessary or not for a specific level of the outcome†), NCA can complement the in kind analysis of necessity with fsQCA.

Keywords: fsQCA; NCA; necessary relationships; set theory; calculus (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:somere:v:47:y:2018:i:4:p:872-899

DOI: 10.1177/0049124115626179

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