Interpreting sufficiency in fsQCA: A reply to Marques and Salavisa (2017)

Flechtner, Svenja and Heinrich, Torsten (2017): Interpreting sufficiency in fsQCA: A reply to Marques and Salavisa (2017).

Abstract

Marques and Salavisa (2017) use fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to analyze age-based labour market dualization in Southern European, Anglo-Saxon and a few Nordic countries. They argue that segmentation at the expense of young outsiders is driven by several factors in non-linear ways: different configurations of deindustrialization, labour market coordination, employment protection, and liberalization can lead to youth outsiderness. We question the validity of their empirical analysis and argue that a more complete interpretation of fsQCA measures of fit does not confirm their conclusions. We use the occasion for a hands-on discussion of how the consistency and PRI scores of the sufficiency solution terms are calculated. A good understanding of these allows the researcher to understand which cases and configurations drive high or low scores, and thus facilitates a better understanding of the results.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA); labour market; unemployment
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C5 - Econometric Modeling > C59 - Other; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers > J60 - General

References

Duşa, Adrian (2007). “User manual for the QCA (GUI) package in R”. In: Journal of Business Research 60.5, pp. 576–586.

Ebbinghaus, Bernhard and Jelle Visser (1999). “When institutions matter: Union growth and decline in Western Europe, 1950-1995”. In: European Sociological Review 15.2, pp. 135–158.

Marques, Paulo and Isabel Salavisa (2017). “Young people and dualization in Europe: a fuzzy set analysis”. In: Socio-Economic Review 15.1, pp. 135–160.

Ragin, Charles C. (2000). Fuzzy-set social science. University of Chicago Press.

Ragin, Charles C. (2006). “Set relations in social research: Evaluating their consistency and coverage”. In: Political Analysis 14.3, pp. 291–310.

Ragin, Charles C. (2008). Redesigning social inquiry: Fuzzy sets and beyond. University of Chicaga Press.

Schnabel, Claus (2013). “Union membership and density: Some (not so) stylized facts and challenges”. In: European Journal of Industrial Relations 19.3, pp. 255–272.

Schneider, Carsten Q. and Claudius Wagemann (2012). Set-theoretic methods for the social sciences: A guide to qualitative comparative analysis. Cambridge University Press.

Thiem, Alrik (2014). “Membership function sensitivity of descriptive statistics in fuzzy-set relations”. In: International Journal of Social Research Methodology 17.6, pp. 625–642.

Thiem, Alrik and Adrian Dusa (2013). Qualitative comparative analysis with R: A user’s guide. Springer.