‘The editors of the new SAGE Handbook of Regression Analysis and Causal Inference have assembled a wide-ranging, high-quality, and timely collection of articles on topics of central importance to quantitative social research, many written by leaders in the field. Everyone engaged in statistical analysis of social-science data will find something of interest in this book.’

- John Fox, Professor, Department of Sociology, McMaster University

‘The authors do a great job in explaining the various statistical methods in a clear and simple way - focussing on fundamental understanding, interpretation of results, and practical application - yet being precise in their exposition.’

- Ben Jann, Executive Director, Institute of Sociology, University of Bern

‘Best and Wolf have put together a powerful collection, especially valuable in its separate discussions of uses for both cross-sectional and panel data analysis.’

-Tom Smith, Senior Fellow, NORC, University of Chicago

Edited and written by a team of leading international social scientists, this Handbook provides a comprehensive introduction to multivariate methods. The Handbook focuses on regression analysis of cross-sectional and longitudinal data with an emphasis on causal analysis, thereby covering a large number of different techniques including selection models, complex samples, and regression discontinuities.

Each Part starts with a non-mathematical introduction to the method covered in that section, giving readers a basic knowledge of the method's logic, scope and unique features. Next, the mathematical and statistical basis of each method is presented along with advanced aspects. Using real-world data from the European Social Survey (ESS) and the Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), the book provides a comprehensive discussion of each method's application, making this an ideal text for PhD students and researchers embarking on their own data analysis.

Fixed-Effects Panel Regression

Fixed-Effects Panel Regression

Fixed-effects panel regression
JosefBrüderl and VolkerLudwig*

Introduction

Fixed-effects (FE) regression is a method that is especially useful in the context of causal inference (Gangl, 2010). While standard regression models provide biased estimates of causal effects if there are unobserved confounders, FE regression is a method that can (if certain assumptions are valid) provide unbiased estimates in this situation (other methods are instrumental variables regression and regression discontinuity; see Chapters 13 and 14 in this volume). Since unobserved confounders are ubiquitous in social science applications, FE regression should be standard in the toolkit of modern social research.

FE regression is most often used with panel data, and therefore the focus of this chapter will be on FE regression with panel data. However, before we begin, we want ...

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