Reactions to "A Model Discipline" -- Part II

In the previous reaction post, I introduced the important new book A Model Discipline by Clarke and Di Primo.  There I concluded with a note about how a multi-method approach provides a compelling reason for the combination of inductive and deductive analytic strategies.  In this post I will discuss in more detail their argument for the varying purposes of models.

Reactions to "A Model Discipline"

I figured a good use of this space is to provide my thoughts on important recent books or articles relevant to research in public management.  This may sometimes be a discuss an article directly related to the study of public management.  But, I am going to start with some reactions to a provocative new book in political methodology -- A Model Discipline:  Political Science and the Logic of Representations by Clarke and Primo.

More resources for learning R

A couple of MOOCs are starting up related to data mining and statistics in R.  I won't sign up for the MOOCs but I will likely watch through many of the associated videos that are nicely collected on youtube.  The videos are broken up into nice little chunks (10-20 minutes) on specific topics.

Check them out here (data mining) and here (statistics).

Reminder for where to get my working papers

I will likely have posts when I add papers, but I want to remind everyone that my working papers are generally available at SSRN.  Soon, this will include my APSA paper on trust in the EPA and fracking,  I give co-authors a veto on posting working papers, but that is the only thing that stops me from posting all of my papers.

Quick review of my APSA panel on trust and accountability in government

This last weekend was the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association in Chicago.  The good news is that there was some excellent research in the public administration section (as well as others).  The bad news is that the allocation of panels to the public administration section was tiny.  We have a lot of work to do to increase the footprint of the section in the APSA.

I was happy to participate in a great panel (first thing Thursday morning) to a full room -- totaling about 10 chairs.  The overall topic was trust and accountability in administrative agencies and my comments are after the break.

A great example of the utility of R

I am in the process of moving over to R as my baseline statistics applications.  Recently I have been working largely in STATA and then moving some results over to R for its fantastic graphic options.  While this has worked, it has significant limitations.  One of the strengths of R is its creation of objects that can be fed automatically into graphics commands (which STATA can also do -- but in a less comprehensive way).

The following blog post is a great example of how R works and the advantages it provides.  After the break, I will have a short commentary on why I think this example illustrates the utility of R so well.

http://rforpublichealth.blogspot.com/2013/08/exporting-results-of-linear-regression_24.html

Re-launch for Research in Public Management

It has been quite awhile since I posted -- but it is just because I have been reorganizing and resting up.  I plan to re-launch the site this week with a much broader web presence.  This blog will house my blog posts related to the research side of public management -- working papers, comments on papers/book I read, methods tutorials, etc.

I will launch a second blog for my teaching related activities at www.EBPubMan.blogspot.com.  There you will see links to news articles and other blog posts relevant to emergency management, evidence-based public management, and public management issues generally.

I have also launched a twitter feed.  Follow me @Robinson_OU for my professional twitter posts along the range of research and teaching activities reviewed above

Some Scary Simulations on the Robustness of Logit

Based on my training, I was always believed that logit models were relatively robust.  Specifically, the rule-of-thumb had been that having more than 50 observations was probably ok for simple MLE models like logit.  Some sticklers prefer a floor of 100 observations.  However, some recent research suggests that the floor may be need to be higher -- much higher.

Big Changes Coming

There are big changes coming to the blog.  I will try to ramp up posting in anticipation of the changes -- but I am not sure how well that will work.  I am moving to the University of Oklahoma's Department of Political Science to become the Bellmon Chair of Public Service and becoming the editor of Risk, Hazards, Crisis, and Public Policy starting in the fall of 2013.  I am considering a blog for each of these new responsibilities.

Randomized Response Surveys -- Curious but Unconvinced

I have run across an interesting strategy for survey design -- that may interest others as well.  A common criticism of surveys (especially those on potentially sensitive subject -- or anything with a social affirmation bias) is that people may not answer honestly and there is no way to ensure that they do.  One strategy to overcome this is randomized response.

Video resources for STATA

As I have posted here, there are a variety of resources to help with LaTeX and R available on youtube.  STATA has now created its own channel of short tutorial videos.  I am hoping this initiative takes off and inspires more official videos as well as some unofficial videos on more niche subject.  The channel is available at:

http://blog.stata.com/2012/09/26/stata-youtube-channel-announced/

Comparative Histograms in ggplot2

I have been doing a lot of work with limited dependent variables lately.  With my push for better visualization as a means to communicate findings (as opposed to relying on tables of coefficients), I have had to develop some strategies for building effective comparative histograms.  I did some of this in my recent JPART and continue to use the same code for other projects (mostly, my risk perception and trust work).  I thought some might like to see how simple it is to create nice comparative histograms for categorical dependent variables:

New Paper on Punctuated Equilibrium Theory and Organizational History

I am almost done with the textbook so I am getting back to (or on to) a variety of writing projects.  This is my recent paper getting back in the PET (punctuation equilibrium theory) game.

Paper after the break...

A Resource for TikZ

I have been leaning on TikZ while preparing my lecture notes for our introductory statistics class.  I just ran across this great blog with tons of examples and advice related to creating the sort of figures we often need in social science statistics.  Enjoy -- I am sure I will.

TikZ for Economists

Some Techniques I Would Like to Work On

This is about as self-referential as it gets... but here it goes any way.  There are a few techniques that I would like to learn over the next semester.  I figured I would mention them here in case others are interested in checking whether they might benefit by the same techniques.  I may write more about them in the future as I explore their limits:

• Dot plots (as a replacement for tables of descriptive statistics)
• Mosaic plots (as a replacement for tables for categorical variables -- maybe mostly for presentations)
• Matching -- possibly the integration of matching, estimation, and simulation in Zelig
• CART (classification and regression trees) for something radically different than traditional regression approaches

New Mission for the Blog?

I have been traveling quite a bit while also trying to catch up on writing projects.  As a result, I have been away from my blog quite a bit.  This has given me some time to consider the function the blog can serve.  I have largely used it as a way to post working papers -- with occasional posts on other subjects like job announcement or journal rankings.  There are a few directions I could go with the blog:

1. I stay with this hodgepodge approach
2. I could focus on substantive public management issues by reacting to recent papers, articles, presentations, and even news items
3. I could use the blog to focus on methods to sync with my upcoming PA methods textbook 

I will have to think this over; but, if you have any recommendations please do not hesitate to e-mail me at srobinson @T bushschool.tamu.edu.  

In the mean time, I will work on come content including an update for the journal rankings of PA policy journals and some more LaTeX templates for material like tables.

Norms of Attribution for Data

I am steadily accumulating windmills against which I tilt.  The one I want to bring to public management scholars attention today is attribution for data.

We have strong norms for ensuring attribution of theoretical advances.  Our citation lists overflow with recognition of previous academic publications.  Professional advancement is driven, in part, by the process of getting recognized for these sorts of publications.  However, we could not write many of the articles we do without data collected by others.  It is time data sets get the recognition they deserves.

Theory in Public Management

Following an interesting presentation by Don Moynihan earlier this week, I have been thinking about the state of theory in public management research.  My conclusion is not new -- there does not seem to be much theory to speak of in the field.  Part of the problem lies in the various ways that theory is defined in the field.  Let me debunk a few of these.

[1] Theory is not the same as normative argumentation.  When one self-identifies as a "public management theorist", one often means that you focus your attention on issues of administrative ethics.  This is not wrong but is a limited use of the term "theory" and not what most people mean when they complain about the lack of theory in the field.  I will set this style of theorizing aside for my purposes.

[2] Theory is not having a reference to illustrate that your hypothesis has some support in the literature.  This is the key problem with the public management literature.  Having a citation is not the same as being theory-based.  It is often the case the articles clearly started with a significant puzzle or problem, developed a prediction, and then sought theory to support the prediction.  This is not necessarily wrong but it is a recipe for non-accumulative literature.   In one article, one might draw on a theory from sociology and in another the same author may draw from a theory in economics.  The theoretical connections are an afterthought and represent a cultural genuflection in the direction of theory -- but this is not theory-driven research.

So, most of what we see is not theory-driven.  What would theory-driven research look like?  At the risk of trivializing the subject, a theory is simply a machine that generates hypotheses.  If you start with hypotheses and change machines with frequency, your research may be problem-centered but it is not theory-centered.  If you focus on the machine, see what hypotheses come from it, and then select a domain for research -- you may be conducting theory-driven research.  Starting with the theory and following it where it generates hypotheses allows for a transparent and direct connection between theory and the results of empirical research.

This is why I don't think that PSM (public service motivation) is a theory.  It is a measured construct that is applied in a variety of contexts.  There is nothing internal to PSM to direct where the next study will go.  Instead, it is a variable people use when grafting a variety of theories onto research questions (PSM and red tape, PSM and sector choice, PSM and learning, PSM and performance management).  The statement "PSM matters" is not a theory -- though it may be true.  It may develop into a theory of administrative decision-making but it is not there yet.

This being said, I am not always a theory-driven researcher myself.  I sometimes start with a domain of interest (say, emergency management) and then conduct research to address key practical puzzles.  In other research, I am more traditionally theory-driven (say, in my punctuated equilibrium research).  One of the reasons that I do not conduct theory-driven work more frequently is the difficulty of defining a theory of public management.  I am slowly building this up through a combination on problem-centered and theory-centered research but none stands out right now.  I guess I better get to work on that.  Until then, I will complain about the lack of theoretical grounding in public management research and then proceed along similar lines myself.

Job Opening at NVOAD

NVOAD has an opening in a director of membership services.  The official job ad is after the break.

Revised Version of My Recent Paper on Emergency Management Networks over Time

I previously posted a paper on the evolution of emergency management networks over time.  I have a new version with a shiny new title -- after the break.