Interventionism and Over-Time Causal Analysis in Social Sciences

The interventionist theory of causation has been advertised as an empirically informed and more nuanced approach to causality than the competing theories. However, previous literature has not yet analyzed the regression discontinuity (hereafter, RD) and the difference-in-differences (hereafter, DD)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhilosophy of the social sciences Vol. 52; no. 1-2; pp. 3 - 24
Main Author Wu, Tung-Ying
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.01.2022
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Causality
Discontinuity
Social sciences
Theory
difference-in-differences
regression discontinuity
Methodology
causation
interventionism
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Summary:The interventionist theory of causation has been advertised as an empirically informed and more nuanced approach to causality than the competing theories. However, previous literature has not yet analyzed the regression discontinuity (hereafter, RD) and the difference-in-differences (hereafter, DD) within an interventionist framework. In this paper, I point out several drawbacks of using the interventionist methodology for justifying the DD and RD designs. Nevertheless, I argue that the first step toward enhancing our understanding of the DD and RD designs from an interventionist perspective is to take advantage of the assumptions of common trend and continuity.
ISSN:0048-3931
1552-7441
DOI:10.1177/00483931211049766