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Exploring the robustness of set theoretic findings from a large n fsQCA: An illustration from the sociology of education

Cooper, B.; Glaesser, J.

Exploring the robustness of set theoretic findings from a large n fsQCA: An illustration from the sociology of education Thumbnail


Authors

B. Cooper

J. Glaesser



Abstract

Ragin’s Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) is often used with small to medium samples where the researcher has good case knowledge. Employing it to analyse large survey datasets, without in-depth case knowledge, raises new challenges. We present ways of addressing these challenges. We first report a single QCA result from a configurational analysis of the British National Child Development Study dataset (highest educational qualification as a set theoretic function of social class, sex and ability). We then address the robustness of our analysis by employing Duşa and Thiem’s R QCA package to explore the consequences of (i) changing fuzzy set theoretic calibrations of ability, (ii) simulating errors in measuring ability and (iii) changing thresholds for assessing the quasi-sufficiency of causal configurations for educational achievement. We also consider how the analysis behaves under simulated re-sampling, using bootstrapping. The paper offers suggested methods to others wishing to use QCA with large n data.

Citation

Cooper, B., & Glaesser, J. (2016). Exploring the robustness of set theoretic findings from a large n fsQCA: An illustration from the sociology of education. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 19(4), 445-459. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2015.1033799

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 19, 2015
Online Publication Date Apr 29, 2015
Publication Date Jul 1, 2016
Deposit Date Mar 31, 2015
Publicly Available Date Aug 20, 2015
Journal International Journal of Social Research Methodology
Print ISSN 1364-5579
Electronic ISSN 1464-5300
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 19
Issue 4
Pages 445-459
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2015.1033799
Keywords Qualitative Comparative Analysis, Calibration, Fuzzy sets, Robustness, Simulation, Bootstrapping.

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Published Journal Article (Advance online version) (841 Kb)
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version © 2015 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.





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