Solving small-N problems by focusing on sub-national units

Abstract

Testing theories meant to explain phenomena at the level of the nation state often runs into the small-N problem. There is often only one or two handfuls of nations to study. At the sub-national level there are often numerous cases: states, counties, cities, regions, municipalities. By increasing the number of observations the researcher extends the range of variation of the explanatory variables as well as the dependent variable thus gaining leverage over causality. However, not all theories may be amenable to sub-national exploration, and sub-national units may not constitute completely independent observations. This panel explores the practical usefulness of focusing on sub-national units as an alternative research strategy.

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