A new document has been added to the Society for Political Methodology Website.

 Title:     Fuzzy Sets on Shaky Ground: Parametric and Specification Sensitivity in fsQCA

Author(s):     Chris Krogslund, Donghyun Choi, Mathias Poertner

Entry Date:     2013-07-18

Keyword(s):     fsQCA, QCA, fuzzy sets

Abstract:      Scholars have increasingly turned to fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to conduct medium-N studies.  fsQCA users advocate the method as a synthetic comparative research strategy that combines the most desired elements of variable-oriented and case-oriented research into a single method.  This paper demonstrates, however, that fsQCA is an extraordinarily sensitive method whose results are worryingly susceptible to minor parametric and model specification changes.  We make two specific claims.  First, the essential prime implicants identified by fsQCA as being sufficient for an outcome to occur are highly contingent upon the values of several key parameters selected by the user.  Second, fsQCA results are subject to marked confirmation bias.  Given its tendency towards finding complex connections between variables, the method is highly likely to identify causal combinations containing even randomly generated variables as sufficient for an outcom!
 
 e.  To illustrate these arguments, we replicate several articles utilizing fsQCA and conduct a set of sensitivity analyses and Monte Carlo simulations to assess the impact of small changes in parameter values and model specifications on the results.

http://polmeth.wustl.edu/mediaDetail.php?docId=1406

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