Causality in Comparative Research

This two-day conference is dedicated to the issue of making causal claims for macro/institutional effects in cross-country comparative research. Based on empirical examples, the following issues will be discussed:

1. What are the questions and hypotheses on institutional influence(s)?
2. What are the ideal identification requirements for causal claims?
3. How can these ideal requirements – including case selection – be best approximated?
4. What are the limitations for “causal claims” of country comparisons? And what are the consequences? Is this different from non-country comparative research designs?
5. What is the value of “description”?

The conference is organized by the research area “Education, Work, and Life Chances” (BAL).