Formal Modeling in Social Science - Hardcover

Mershon, Carol; Shvetsova, Olga

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0472074237 ISBN 13: 9780472074235

Publisher: The University of Michigan Press, 2019

Synopsis

A formal model in the social sciences builds explanations when it structures the reasoning underlying a theoretical argument, opens venues for controlled experimentation, and can lead to hypotheses. Yet more importantly, models evaluate theory, build theory, and enhance conjectures. Formal Modeling in Social Science addresses the varied helpful roles of formal models and goes further to take up more fundamental considerations of epistemology and methodology. The authors integrate the exposition of the epistemology and the methodology of modeling and argue that these two reinforce each other. They illustrate the process of designing an original model suited to the puzzle at hand, using multiple methods in diverse substantive areas of inquiry. The authors also emphasize the crucial, though underappreciated, role of a narrative in the progression from theory to model. Transparency of assumptions and steps in a model means that any analyst will reach equivalent predictions whenever she replicates the argument. Hence, models enable theoretical replication, essential in the accumulation of knowledge. Formal Modeling in Social Science speaks to scholars in different career stages and disciplines and with varying expertise in modeling.

About this title

About the Author

Carol Mershon is Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia.

Olga Shvetsova is Professor of Political Science and Economics at Binghamton University.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0472074237
• ISBN 13: 9780472074235
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256