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How Much Does It Cost?

Author

Listed:
  • Jacques-Antoine Gauthier

    (University of Lausanne, Switzerland, Jacques-Antoine.Gauthier@unil.ch)

  • Eric D. Widmer

    (University of Geneva, Switzerland)

  • Philipp Bucher

    (Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, Lausanne Switzerland)

  • Cédric Notredame

    (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Marseille, France, and Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona, Spain)

Abstract

One major methodological problem in analysis of sequence data is the determination of costs from which distances between sequences are derived. Although this problem is currently not optimally dealt with in the social sciences, it has some similarity with problems that have been solved in bioinformatics for three decades. In this article, the authors propose an optimization of substitution and deletion/insertion costs based on computational methods. The authors provide an empirical way of determining costs for cases, frequent in the social sciences, in which theory does not clearly promote one cost scheme over another. Using three distinct data sets, the authors tested the distances and cluster solutions produced by the new cost scheme in comparison with solutions based on cost schemes associated with other research strategies. The proposed method performs well compared with other cost-setting strategies, while it alleviates the justification problem of cost schemes.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacques-Antoine Gauthier & Eric D. Widmer & Philipp Bucher & Cédric Notredame, 2009. "How Much Does It Cost?," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 38(1), pages 197-231, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:38:y:2009:i:1:p:197-231
    DOI: 10.1177/0049124109342065
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. H. Bock, 1985. "On some significance tests in cluster analysis," Journal of Classification, Springer;The Classification Society, vol. 2(1), pages 77-108, December.
    2. Andrew Abbott, 1990. "A Primer on Sequence Methods," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 1(4), pages 375-392, November.
    3. Glenn Milligan & Martha Cooper, 1985. "An examination of procedures for determining the number of clusters in a data set," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 50(2), pages 159-179, June.
    4. J. Hartigan, 1985. "Statistical theory in clustering," Journal of Classification, Springer;The Classification Society, vol. 2(1), pages 63-76, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Hanly, Mark & Clarke, Paul & Steele, Fiona, 2016. "Sequence analysis of call record data: exploring the role of different cost settings," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64896, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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