IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/polals/v29y2021i3p356-369_5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Achieving Statistical Significance with Control Variables and Without Transparency

Author

Listed:
  • Lenz, Gabriel S.
  • Sahn, Alexander

Abstract

How often do articles depend on suppression effects for their findings? How often do they disclose this fact? By suppression effects, we mean control-variable-induced increases in estimated effect sizes. Researchers generally scrutinize suppression effects as they want reassurance that authors have a strong explanation for them, especially when the statistical significance of the key finding depends on them. In a reanalysis of observational studies from a leading journal, we find that over 30% of articles depend on suppression effects for statistical significance. Although increases in key effect estimates from including control variables are of course potentially justifiable, none of the articles justify or disclose them. These findings may point to a hole in the review process: journals are accepting articles that depend on suppression effects without readers, reviewers, or editors being made aware.

Suggested Citation

  • Lenz, Gabriel S. & Sahn, Alexander, 2021. "Achieving Statistical Significance with Control Variables and Without Transparency," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29(3), pages 356-369, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:polals:v:29:y:2021:i:3:p:356-369_5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1047198720000315/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yu Wang & Randall W. Stone, 2023. "China visits: a dataset of Chinese leaders’ foreign visits," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 201-225, January.
    2. Sun, Guibo & Du, Yao, 2023. "New metro and subjective wellbeing among older people: A natural experiment in Hong Kong," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    3. Kravtsova, Maria & Libman, Alexander, 2023. "Historical family structure as a predictor of liberal voting: Evidence from a century of Russian history," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(2).
    4. Lang, Megan & Qiu, Wenfeng, 2021. "Cherry Picking," MetaArXiv as9zd, Center for Open Science.
    5. Luca Bellodi & Massimo Morelli & Antonio Nicolò & Paolo Roberti, 2023. "The Shift to Commitment Politics and Populism:Theory and Evidence," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 23204, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:polals:v:29:y:2021:i:3:p:356-369_5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/pan .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.