A Quantitative Tour of the Social Sciences

This book provides an accessible, non-technical overview of how quantitative research is done in the social sciences.

Social scientists become experts in their own disciplines but aren't always familiar with what is going on in neighboring fields. To foster a deeper understanding of the interconnection of the social sciences, economists should know where historical data come from, sociologists should know how to think like economists, political scientists would benefit from understanding how models are tested in psychology, historians should learn how political processes are studied, psychologists should understand sociological theories, and so forth. This overview by prominent social scientists gives an accessible, non-technical sense of how quantitative research is done in different areas. Readers will find out about models and ways of thinking in economics, history, sociology, political science, and psychology, which in turn they can bring back to their own work.

1. Models and methods in the social sciences Andrew Gelman; 2. History Herbert Klein and Charles Stockley; 3. Economics Richard Clarida and Marta Noguer; 4. Sociology Seymour Spilerman and Emanuele Gerratana; 5. Political science Charles Cameron; 6. Psychology E. Tory Higgins, Elke Weber, and Heidi Grant; 7. To treat or not to treat: casual inference in the social science Jeronimo Cortina.

This 2009 overview by prominent social scientists gives a friendly, non-technical sense of how quantitative research is done in different areas. Readers will find out about models and ways of thinking in economics, history, sociology, political science, and psychology, which in turn they can bring back to their own work.

Andrew Gelman is a Professor of Statistics and Political Science at Columbia University, New York. He received the Presidents' Award in 2003, which is awarded each year to the best statistician under forty. He has written about 200 research articles on statistical methods, teaching, and applications, and his books include Bayesian Data Analysis, Teaching Statistics: A Bag of Tricks, Applied Regression and Multilevel Models, and, most recently, Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do. He is the founding director of the Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences Program, an interdisciplinary program at Columbia University that bridges history, economics, sociology, political science, psychology, and statistics.
Jeronimo Cortina is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Houston, where he was also the Resident Scholar at the Center for Mexican American Studies for 2007–8. He previously collaborated with the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute on its survey designs, implementation, and analysis and is currently collaborating with UNICEF on the implementation of surveys, after completing his MPA and PhD at Columbia University, New York.