version 3.18

# Compute the retention probability of a csQCA solution

## Description

This function computes the retention probability for a csQCA solution, under various perturbation scenarios. It only works with bivalent crisp-set data, containing the binary values 0 or 1.

## Usage

    retention(data, outcome = "", conditions = "", type = "corruption",
              dependent = TRUE, n.cut = 1, incl.cut = 1, p.pert = 0.5, n.pert = 1)

## Arguments

`data` |  |  |  | A dataset of bivalent crisp-set factors.
`outcome` |  |  |  | String, the name of the outcome.
`conditions` |  |  |  | A string containing the condition variables' names, separated by commas.
`type` |  |  |  | Simulate corruptions of values in the conditions (`"corruption"`), or cases deleted entirely (`"deletion"`).
`dependent` |  |  |  | Logical, if `TRUE` indicating DPA - Dependent Perturbations Assumption and if `FALSE` indicating IPA - Independent Perturbations Assumption.
`n.cut` |  |  |  | The minimum number of cases for a causal combination with a set membership score above 0.5, for an output function value of "0" or "1".
`incl.cut` |  |  |  | The minimum sufficiency inclusion score for an output function value of "1".
`p.pert` |  |  |  | Probability of perturbation under independent (IPA) assumption.
`n.pert` |  |  |  | Number of perturbations under dependent (DPA) assumption.

## Details

The argument `data` requires a suitable data set, in the form of a data frame. with the following structure: values of 0 and 1 for bivalent crisp-set variables.

The argument `outcome` specifies the outcome to be explained, in upper-case notation (e.g. `X`).

The argument `conditions` specifies the names of the condition variables. If omitted, all variables in `data` are used except `outcome`.

The argument `type` controls which type of perturbations should be simulated to calculate the retention probability. When `type = "corruption"`, it simulates changes of values in the conditions (values of 0 become 1, and values of 1 become 0). When `type = "deletion"`, it calculates the probability of retaining the same solution if a number of cases are deleted from the original data.

The argument `dependent` is a logical which choses between two categories of assumptions. If `dependent = TRUE` (the default) it indicates DPA - Dependent Perturbations Assumption, when perturbations depend on each other and are tied to a fixed number of cases, ex-ante (see Thiem, Spohel and Dusa, 2016). If `dependent = FALSE`, it indicates IPA - Independent Perturbations Assumption, when perturbations are assumed to occur independently of each other.

The argument `n.cut` is one of the factors that decide which configurations are coded as logical remainders or not, in conjunction with argument `incl.cut`. Those configurations that contain fewer than `n.cut` cases with membership scores above 0.5 are coded as logical remainders (`OUT = "?"`). If the number of such cases is at least `n.cut`, configurations with an inclusion score of at least `incl.cut` are coded positive (`OUT = "1"`), while configurations with an inclusion score below `incl.cut` are coded negative (`OUT = "0"`).

The argument `p.pert` specifies the probability of perturbation under the IPA - independent perturbations assumption (when`dependent = FALSE`).

The argument `n.pert` specifies the number of perturbations under the DPA - dependent perturbations assumption (when`dependent = TRUE`). At least one perturbation is needed to possibly change a csQCA solution, otherwise the solution will remain the same (retention equal to 100%) if zero perturbations occur under this argument.

## References

Thiem, A.; Spoehel, R.; Dusa, A. (2015) “Replication Package for: Enhancing Sensitivity Diagnostics for Qualitative Comparative Analysis: A Combinatorial Approach”, Harvard Dataverse, V1. DOI: http://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QE27H9

Thiem, A.; Spoehel, R.; Dusa, A. (2016) “Enhancing Sensitivity Diagnostics for Qualitative Comparative Analysis: A Combinatorial Approach.” Political Analysis vol.24, no.1, pp.104-120.

## Examples

    # the replication data, see Thiem, Spohel and Dusa (2015)

    dat <- data.frame(matrix(c(
        rep(1,25), rep(0,20), rep(c(0,0,1,0,0),3),
        0,0,0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,0, rep(1,7),0,1),
        nrow = 16, byrow = TRUE, dimnames = list(c(
        "AT","DK","FI","NO","SE","AU","CA","FR",
        "US","DE","NL","CH","JP","NZ","IE","BE"),
        c("P", "U", "C", "S", "W"))
    ))

    # calculate the retention probability, for 2.5% probability of data corruption
    # under the IPA - independent perturbation assuption
    retention(dat, outcome = "W", type = "corruption", dep = FALSE,
           p.pert = 0.025, incl.cut = 1)

    [1] 0.7962228

    # the probability that a csQCA solution will change
    1 - retention(dat, outcome = "W", type = "corruption", dep = FALSE,
           p.pert = 0.025, incl.cut = 1)

    [1] 0.2037772

## Author

Adrian Dusa