Abstract
This paper offers an overview of methods for causal inference in electoral studies. We first summarize typical definitions of causality used by social scientists in Japan and then discuss their limitations in application. Next, we review a definition of causality based on potential outcomes and extend its principle to demonstrate the problems of a conventional method combining regression analysis and cross-sectional data for causal inference. Further, we introduce three sets of approaches for building a causal relationship and review their applications in electoral studies. Those approaches include an experimental method, a quasiexperimental method, and a statistical method.
