Research Methods in Practice: Strategies for Description and Causation

Thoroughly updated to reflect changes in both research and methods, this Third Edition of Remler and Van Ryzin’s innovative, standard-setting text is imbued with a deep commitment to making social and policy research methods accessible and meaningful. Research Methods in Practice: Strategies for Description and Causation motivates readers to examine the logic and limits of social science research from academic journals and government reports. A central theme of causation versus description runs through the text, emphasizing the idea that causal research is essential to understanding the origins of social problems and their potential solutions. Readers will find excitement in the research experience as the best hope for improving the world in which we live, while also acknowledging the trade-offs and uncertainties in real-world research.

Dahlia K. Remler is Professor at the School of Public Affairs, Baruch College, and the Department of Economics, Graduate Center, both of the City University of New York. She is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Dahlia has been in an unusual mix of disciplinary and interdisciplinary settings. She received a BS in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, a DPhil in physical chemistry from Oxford University―while a Marshall Scholar―and a PhD in economics from Harvard University. During the Clinton administration’s health care reform efforts, Dahlia held a fellowship at the Brookings Institution to finish her dissertation on health care cost containment. She then held a postdoctoral research fellowship at Harvard Medical School, followed by assistant professorships at Tulane’s and Columbia’s Schools of Public Health, prior to joining the faculty at Baruch. She enjoys comparing and contrasting how different disciplines see the same issues.

Dahlia has published widely in a variety of areas in health care policy, including health care cost containment, information technology in health care, cigarette tax regressivity, simulation methods for health insurance take-up, and health insurance and health care markets. She has also recently started working on higher education and media issues. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Health Affairs, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the American Journal of Public Health, Medical Care Research and Review, and many other journals. She blogs on health care policy, higher education and other topics at DahliaRemler.com.

Dahlia lives with her husband, Howard, in New York City, where they enjoy the city’s theaters, restaurants, and parks―and Dahlia enjoys being a complete amateur dancer in some of the city’s superb dance studios.

Gregg G. Van Ryzin is Professor at the School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers University―Newark. He received his BA in geography from Columbia University and his PhD in psychology from the City University of New York. During his doctoral training, he worked as a planner for a nonprofit housing and community development organization in New York City, and he completed his dissertation on low income housing for the elderly in Detroit. He next worked in Washington, D.C., for ICF Inc. and later Westat, Inc. on surveys and program evaluations for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and other federal agencies. In 1995, he joined the faculty of the School of Public Affairs, Baruch College, where he directed their Survey Research Unit for 8 years. In that role, he helped develop and direct the New York City Community Health Survey, a large-scale behavioral health survey for the city’s health department, and also played a key role in shaping and conducting the city’s survey of satisfaction with government services. He has spent time in Madrid, collaborating with researchers there on the analysis of surveys about public attitudes toward Spanish government policy.

Gregg has published many scholarly articles on housing and welfare programs, survey and evaluation methods, and public opinion about government services and institutions. His work has appeared in the International Review of Administrative Sciences, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, the Journal of Urban Affairs, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Public Administration Review, Public Management Review, Public Performance and Management Review, Urban Affairs Review, and other journals.

Gregg lives in New York City with his wife, Ada (a history professor at NYU), and their daughters Alina and Lucia. They enjoy life in their Greenwich Village neighborhood, escaping on occasion to Spain, Miami, Maine, Cuba, and other interesting places in the world.