Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- List of tables and figures
- Preface
- 1 Methodological innovations in comparative political economy: an introduction
- PART I TIME-SERIES ANALYSIS
- 2 Introduction to time-series analysis
- 3 Direct state intervention in the labor market: the explanation of active labor market policy from 1950 to 1988 in social democratic, conservative, and liberal regimes
- 4 Quality of quantity in comparative/historical analysis: temporally changing wage labor regimes in the United States and Sweden
- 5 The politics of public and private investment in Britain
- PART II POOLED TIME-SERIES AND CROSS-SECTIONAL ANALYSIS
- PART III EVENT HISTORY ANALYSIS
- PART IV BOOLEAN ANALYSIS
- Author index
- Subject index
2 - Introduction to time-series analysis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- List of tables and figures
- Preface
- 1 Methodological innovations in comparative political economy: an introduction
- PART I TIME-SERIES ANALYSIS
- 2 Introduction to time-series analysis
- 3 Direct state intervention in the labor market: the explanation of active labor market policy from 1950 to 1988 in social democratic, conservative, and liberal regimes
- 4 Quality of quantity in comparative/historical analysis: temporally changing wage labor regimes in the United States and Sweden
- 5 The politics of public and private investment in Britain
- PART II POOLED TIME-SERIES AND CROSS-SECTIONAL ANALYSIS
- PART III EVENT HISTORY ANALYSIS
- PART IV BOOLEAN ANALYSIS
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
Beginning with time series is perhaps the best point of entree for the new methods of comparative research because its chronologically ordered data come closest to familiar notions of history. Yet rather than simply describing “one damn year after another,” time-series analysis tests for the relationships between variables. When time-series analysis is done in a sensitive, theory-driven, historically grounded manner, it can ring true with conventional historical analysis by enriching and being enriched by historical inquiry.
THE SCOPE AND LOGIC OF TIME-SERIES ANALYSIS
Time series, as currently used, most often cover variables in comparative political economy in nations or states from 20 to 100 years. Most studies of the welfare state focus on state expenditures, but participation in programs or demographic outputs have also been used (Hage and Hanneman 1980; Griffin, Devine, and Wallace 1983; Hicks 1984; Korpi 1989; Hage, Hanneman, and Gargan 1990). Political scientists have pursued the election cycle and macroeconomic policies (Hibbs 1977; Monroe 1979, 1984; Hibbs and Vasilatos 1981; Beck 1982; and Hibbs, Rivers, and Vasilatos 1982). And sociological and economic researchers have also focused on strikes (Shorter and Tilly 1974; Snyder 1975; Edwards 1981; and Isaac and Griffin 1989). Time-series methods, however, can be applied to any social or political variable that can be regularly measured over a given time frame (i.e., over standard calendar units of years, quarters, months, etc.).
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- The Comparative Political Economy of the Welfare State , pp. 31 - 53Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994
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