Quality and Quantity, 16 (1982) 367-368 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam-Printed

367 in The Netherlands

ABSTRACTS

Quality and Quantity: Another View of Analytic Induction As a Research Technique STEVEN

I. MILLER

The purpose of this paper is to examine the assumptions of one well-known technique used in qualitative research, i.e., analytic induction, and to suggest ways in which the technique might be of further value to both qualitative and quantitative researchers. To this end, the analytic inductive technique has been assessed by using various hypothetical numerical values in some of the cells. Both correlational analysis and the use of confidence intervals suggest that analytic induction and correlational analysis have broad parallels, and that qualitative researchers using the analytic induction technique can be more confident in their results.

The Geometry of Economic Knowledge EDOUARD

ROSSIER

Starting from the conjecture that knowledge derived from quantitative economic always approximative and generally not exact, this paper deals with a geometrical to imprecision using mixed qualitative and quantitative information. By writing model in its canonical linearised form

models is approach a generic

Dx=b where x E R n and b’= 10’: 11, it is assumed that the n X n matrix D belongs to the parallelotope Q={D/DOGDGD*} The problem to be faced is then the study of the significant generated by the set P = {x/Dx

properties

of the geometric

figure

= b, DE q}

which will be called a polytope. Such properties lie, for instance, in the projections of P with respect to the x axes, or in its projections on a selected plane corresponding to the pair of variables (xi, xj). This problem-which can be a complex one when n is large and D contains a great number of nonfixed elements-has applications in various fields, such as the study of structural changes and their implications for policy decisions, or in improving the undetermined results of a comparative static analysis.

368

A Decision Theoretical Analysis of Decisions of the Dutch Government with Respect to Indonesia I.N. GALLHOFER

and W.E. SARIS

This paper describes a decision theoretical analysis of the Dutch government’s decision not to proceed with the destruction of the Republic of Indonesia, under the threat of intervention by the United Nations Security Council, in August 1947. Combined with a text-analysis procedure developed by the authors, the decision theoretical approach to the related documents produces very useful insights: the decision processes and the influence patterns of the various governmental advisers are detected and the decision rules which explain the choices made are perfectly predicted on the basis of the quality of the value- and probability-statements.

The Uncooperative Interviewee LEE SIGELMAN

Considerable effort has been devoted to studying the characteristics of individuals who have refused to be interviewed in opinion surveys, but little attention has been paid to the question of why some people are less cooperative than others after an interview has begun. This paper presents and tests, through an analysis of data from the 1976 American National Election Study, two hypotheses about the characteristics of more and less cooperative interviewees.