Abstract
The extensive causal inference revolution in statistics, epidemiology and other social science fields based on Rubin’s potential outcome model and Pearl’s directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) has not penetrated the research of analytical sociologists as yet. In this chapter we introduce empirical examples, primarily relying on the Merton Award winning papers to demonstrate the value of these frameworks as a way of providing theoretical clarity for assumed causal structures, and methodological clarity for what is needed for the identification of causal effects. We provide a brief introduction to the potential outcome model and DAGs and discuss different strategies for mechanism-based identification of causal effects. Finally, we make use of an extended empirical example to demonstrate recent methodological developments in mediation analysis in order to enrich the analytical sociologists’ methodological toolkit.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Research Handbook on Analytical Sociology |
Publisher | Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. |
Pages | 364-391 |
Number of pages | 28 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781789906851 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781789906844 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2021 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Social Sciences