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1. Distributional National Accounts (DINA) with Household Survey Data: Methodology and Results for European Countries

Author:
Stefan Ederer, Stefan Humer, Stefan Jestl, and Emanuel List
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW)
Abstract:
The paper builds Distributional National Accounts (DINA) using household survey data. We present a transparent and reproducible methodology to construct DINA whenever administrative tax data are not available for research and apply it to various European countries. By doing so, we build synthetic microdata files which cover the entire distribution, include all income components individually aligned to national accounts, and preserve the detailed socioeconomic information available in the surveys. The methodology uses harmonized and publicly available data sources (SILC, HFCS) and provides highly comparable results. We discuss the methodological steps and their impact on the income distribution. In particular, we highlight the effects of imputations and the adjustment of the variables to national accounts totals. Furthermore, we compare different income concepts of both the DINA and EG-DNA approach of the OECD in a consistent way. Our results confirm that constructing DINA is crucial to get a better picture of the income distribution. Our methodology is well suited to build synthetic microdata files which can be used for policy evaluation like social impact analysis and microsimulation.
Topic:
Macroeconomics, Data, and Methods
Political Geography:
Europe

2. Outliers in semi-parametric Estimation of Treatment Effects

Author:
Darwin Ugarte Ontiveros, Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza, and Luis Castro Peñarrieta
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
Average treatment effects estimands can present significant bias under the presence of outliers. Moreover, outliers can be particularly hard to detect, creating bias and inconsistency in the semi-parametric ATE estimads. In this paper, we use Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate that semi-parametric methods, such as matching, are biased in the presence of outliers. Bad and good leverage points outliers are considered. The bias arises because bad leverage points completely change the distribution of the metrics used to define counterfactuals. Whereas good leverage points increase the chance of breaking the common support condition and distort the balance of the covariates and which may push practitioners to misspecify the propensity score. We provide some clues to diagnose the presence of outliers and propose a reweighting estimator that is robust against outliers based on the Stahel-Donoho multivariate estimator of scale and location. An application of this estimator to LaLonde’s (1986) data allows us to explain the Dehejia and Wahba (2002) and Smith and Todd (2005) debate on the inability of matching estimators to deal with the evaluation problem.
Topic:
Economics, Econometrics, Methods, and Counterfactuals
Political Geography:
Global

3. Interrogating the “social life of methods” in critical approaches to security | Interroger la « vie sociale des méthodes » dans les approches critiques de la sécurité : expertise et enquête sur les questions de sécurité européenne

Author:
Julian Jeandesboz
Publication Date:
06-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
Research on the security politics of the European Union is becoming increasingly abundant. To further the aims of this special issue on methodology among critical approaches to security, this article draws on the appropriation by this scholarship of the “social life of methods” debate to open two related lines of investigation. First, the article examines the inscription of researchers into European security politics not only as a limit to research, but as a method of access and analysis. The article looks particularly at the identification of researchers as “experts” by EU practitioners, and at expertise as method. The second line of investigation and reflection concerns the limits inherent to the way in which critical scholarship on security has appropriated the “social life of methods” discussion. The article argues that this is an opportunity to engage with methods in relation to concrete research endeavors, rather than to stage a theoretical discussion on methods.
Topic:
Security, European Union, Methods, and Experts
Political Geography:
Europe

4. Analyzing the field of security in Switzerland: Towards a hypertrophy of internal security and some methodological remarks | Analyse du champ de la sécurité en Suisse : vers une hypertrophie de la sécurité intérieure et autres réflexions méthodologiques

Author:
Stephan Davidshofer, Amal Tawfik, and Tobias Hagmann
Publication Date:
06-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
Investigating the possible emergence of a transnational field of security in Europe constitutes a very stimulating research venue for literature on critical approaches to security. However, the operationalization of such an agenda entails some challenges. Notably, time-consuming data collection and analytical processes are needed in order to fully grasp the characteristics and resources of numerous actors. Drawing on a research project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF), the aim of this paper is double. It offers both an analysis of the contemporary dynamics of the field of security in Switzerland and a presentation of practical solutions for researchers willing to conduct empirically-oriented studies of different settings of the transnational field of security in Europe. In order to do so, this contribution stands as a methodological roadmap, presenting the various steps leading to the construction of a national social space dedicated to “security issues”. Given the significant volume of data collected in this research project, a series of statistical analysis methods are mobilized in this paper: multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), principal component analysis (PCA), and network analysis. Lastly, in summarizing the project’s results, the paper points to the growing influence of transnational security dynamics on Swiss security actors.
Topic:
National Security, Statistics, and Methods
Political Geography:
Europe and Switzerland