Panel data analysis has become very popular in comparative political economy. However, in order to draw meaningful inferences from such data, one has to address specification and estimation issues carefully. This paper aims to demonstrate various pitfalls that typically occur in applied...

This article analyzes various pitfalls that arise in the application of panel data methods in comparative political economy. Empirically, we refer to the debate on the globalization-welfare state nexus by re-assessing a study by Garrett and Mitchell (‘Globalization, Government Spending and...