A Quantitative Tour of the Social Sciences
"A marvelous sampler of quantitative approaches to social science across a range of disciplines. The authors forsake the dry and mechanical overviews that typify introductory texts in favor of focused forays into specific problems, deemed representative of their discipline's theoretical and empirical output. These engrossing stories of research make the volume a lively and informative read."John Gerring, author of Social Science Methodology and Case Study Research: Principles and Practices"Andrew Gelman and Jeronimo Cortina have put together a unique and important volume covering empirical approaches across the dominant social sciences. Where else would one get detailed advice about specifying, fitting and analyzing quantitative models specifically tailored to five fields written by leaders in those fields? Rather than looking for the lowest-common-factor that relates these areas, the enclosed essays highlight the specialty and diversity of academic social sciences while remaining accessible to students regardless of their individual background. Bracketed by two theoretical discussions, this work provides a stunningly creative approach to broad social science education."Jeff Gill, Director of the Center for Applied Statistics, Washington University"A Quantitative Tour of the Social Sciences provides an impressive overview of the uses of statistics throughout the social sciences, from psychology to economics, from sociology to political science. The collection of essays is highly accessible and provides excellent examples of statistical methods in the study of human behavior and society."Steve Ansolabehere, Professor of Government, Harvard University"Despite the commonalities in the questions they seek to answer, researchers in different social sciences tend to use very different methods, often embarrassingly ignorant of what their colleagues in other fields are doing. Based partly on a lecture course at Columbia University designed to remedy this, the Gelman and Cortina collection provides a lucid and readable introduction to the methodological approaches in the different social sciences. Reading this will help empirical researchers in all social sciences broaden their understanding of quantitative methods, and help them choose their methods on the merits, rather that on the basis of what is fashionable in their own field."Guido W. Imbens, Professor of Economics, Harvard University"... the book is well written and engaging, and most of us will find parts of great interest. Moreover, anyone looking for some examples or readings to bring into a course on probability and statistics which is populated by social science students will find some good ones in this volume."Darren Glass, MAA Reviews"Highly recommended."M. Oromaner, CHOICE"Andrew Gelman and Jeronimo Cortina offer to the social sciences an excellent volume that will open up new lines of understanding between sociologists, political scientists, economists, psychologists, and historians. Overall, the approach to social science presented in the volume is appealing and, from my perspective, consistent with the best traditions of sociological analysis."Stephen L. Morgan, Contemporary Sociology