Refining Variable Measurement in Quantitative Public Policy Studies through Concept Analysiss
Quantitative research on public policy has been widely conducted to provide insightful information for policy making and implementation.In this stream of research,the general pattern is that more attention has been paid to the quality of data and the specification of statistical models and less attention has been paid to concepts and their measurement validity.Quite often,simplified indicators are used to measure complicated re-ality,which ensures the operationalizability of variables but may cause measurement bias.How to improve measurement validity is an important issue to be further explored.This study proposes an approach of using concept analysis to improve measurement validity,and the logic and operational details of this approach is e-laborated.Key components include:First,describe variables with objects and their attributes that scholars are interested in,and analyze the concepts of the objects and their attributes,separately;Second,conduct concept analysis through analyzing the connotation and denotation of concepts,differentiating similar concepts,taking into consideration differences in research perspectives,and being ware of contextual specificities;Third,formu-late a set of indicators for measuring variables based on the analysis on the concept of its attributes and estab-lish constraints set based on the results of the concept analysis of objects;Finally,using these constrains,eval-uate and select indicators that demonstrate superior measurement validity,or enhance a specific measure.To il-lustrate the methodology and its application,variable measurements in a variety of quantitative studies on pub-lic policy are discussed,with a particular focus on understanding the measurement of environmental regulatory stringency.The arguments of this article are conductive to quantitative studies by enabling scholars to take full consideration of the reality of Chinese context in measuring variables.
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