Panel data analysis in comparative politics: Linking method to theory

Abstract.  Re-analyzing a study of Garrett and Mitchell ('Globalization, government spending and taxation in the OECD', European Journal of Political Research 39(2) (2001): 145–177), this article addresses four potential sources of problems in panel data analyses with a lagged dependent variable and period and unit dummies (the de facto Beck-Katz standard). These are: absorption of cross-sectional variance by unit dummies, absorption of time-series variance by the lagged dependent variable and period dummies, mis-specification of the lag structure, and neglect of parameter slope heterogeneity. Based on this discussion, we suggest substantial changes of the estimation approach and the estimated model. Employing our preferred methodological stance, we demonstrate that Garrett and Mitchell's findings are not robust. Instead, we show that partisan politics and socioeconomic factors such as aging and unemployment as expected by theorists have a strong impact on the time-series and cross-sectional variance in government spending.     

CONTINGENCY CONTRACTING WITH JUVENILE OFFENDERS

This study was designed to test whether or not juvenile subjects who were on probation and were under a court order to pay fines would show an increased rate of work when positive contingencies of reinforcement were used in the form of contingency contracts.     

Parental Leave and Gender Equality: Lessons from the European Union

abstract This article describes the development of European Union parental leave policy and its impact on mothers'and fathers'access to parental leave in the individual nations that make up the union. Cross-national variations in parental leave policy are described and analyzed. Although the 15 countries belonging to the EU in 2002 are concerned about helping working parents reconcile employment and family responsibilities, so far, only one—Sweden—has begun to develop a parental leave policy likely to facilitate men's and women's sharing of responsibility for breadwinning and child care.     

FEMALE AND MALE HOMICIDE VICTIMIZATION RATES: COMPARING TRENDS AND REGRESSORS*

This study compares national female and male homicide victimization rates (HVRs) during 1930–1995. The trends are almost the same, even when separated by race, in spite of large gender differences in HVR levels. When regressing female and male HVRs on demographic, economic, social control, and other variables, the coefficients differ between the sexes only to the extent expected by chance. The important predictors relate to offenders and are independent of the type of victim; the incapacitation impact of prison populations is especially strong for all HVRs. This is consistent with others' findings that men who murder women, and even those who commit sexual and partner assaults, have criminal records nearly as bad as offenders generally. These findings have implications for several broader topics: the usefulness of data dis-aggregation, the usefulness of crime situation theories, the reasons for declining homicide rates, and strategies for reducing violence against women.