IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/cnpexx/v21y2016i5p437-454.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Between X and Y: how process tracing contributes to opening the black box of causality

Author

Listed:
  • Christine Trampusch
  • Bruno Palier

Abstract

This article maps the methodological debate on process tracing and discusses the diverse variants of process tracing in order to highlight the commonalities beyond diversity and disagreements. Today most authors agree that process tracing is aimed at unpacking causal and temporal mechanisms. The article distinguishes two main types of use for process tracing. Some are more inductive, aimed at theory building (i.e. at uncovering and specifying causal mechanisms) while others are more deductive, aimed at theory testing (and refining). The paper summarizes the main added value and drawbacks of process tracing. It ends by providing ten guidelines for when and how to apply process tracing.

Suggested Citation

  • Christine Trampusch & Bruno Palier, 2016. "Between X and Y: how process tracing contributes to opening the black box of causality," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(5), pages 437-454, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:cnpexx:v:21:y:2016:i:5:p:437-454
    DOI: 10.1080/13563467.2015.1134465
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13563467.2015.1134465
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13563467.2015.1134465?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mikhail Turchenko, 2016. "The Rise and Fall of Local Self-Government: The Case of Petrozavodsk," HSE Working papers WP BRP 37/PS/2016, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    2. Min Xu & Jinjun Qu & Mai Li, 2022. "National Policies, Recent Research Hotspots, and Application of Sustainable Energy: Case of China, USA, and European Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-30, August.
    3. Mayntz, Renate, 2017. "Handeln und Struktur, Akteur und System: Die kausale Rekonstruktion von sozialen Makrophänomenen am Beispiel der Finanzkrise," MPIfG Discussion Paper 17/5, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    4. Geels, Frank W., 2022. "Causality and explanation in socio-technical transitions research: Mobilising epistemological insights from the wider social sciences," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(6).
    5. Ezequiel Gonzalez-Ocantos & Jody LaPorte, 2021. "Process Tracing and the Problem of Missing Data," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 50(3), pages 1407-1435, August.
    6. Parker, A. Rani & Coleman, Eric & Manyindo, Jacob & Mukuru, Emmanuel & Schultz, Bill, 2020. "Bridging the academic-practitioner gap in RCTs," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    7. Elisabetta Mocca & Michael Friesenecker & Yuri Kazepov, 2020. "Greening Vienna. The Multi-Level Interplay of Urban Environmental Policy–Making," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-18, February.
    8. Alvarado, Miriam & Penney, Tarra L. & Unwin, Nigel & Murphy, Madhuvanti M. & Adams, Jean, 2021. "Evidence of a health risk ‘signalling effect’ following the introduction of a sugar-sweetened beverage tax," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    9. Showalter, David & Wenger, Lynn D. & Lambdin, Barrot H. & Wheeler, Eliza & Binswanger, Ingrid & Kral, Alex H., 2021. "Bridging institutional logics: Implementing naloxone distribution for people exiting jail in three California counties," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 285(C).
    10. Fastenrath, Florian & Orban, Agnes & Trampusch, Christine, 2017. "From economic gains to social losses: How stories shape expectations in the case of German municipal finance," MPIfG Discussion Paper 17/20, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    11. Skarbek, David, 2020. "Qualitative research methods for institutional analysis," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(4), pages 409-422, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:cnpexx:v:21:y:2016:i:5:p:437-454. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/cnpe20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.