This course will examine some of the most common solutions to problems of causal inference in social science, and how they can be fitted to larger programs of hypothesis testing. Techniques to be covered include instrumental variables, regression discontinuity, natural experiments, field experiments, difference in difference and matching. Students will be asked to read and critique recent work from comparative politics and American politics that use these techniques, with an emphasis on applications to substantive questions rather than methodological details. Students will be asked to produce multiple research proposals that use these techniques, and present them in class. Students who take both PSC 562 and 563 may use either, but not both, to satisfy the course requirements for the Comparative Politics field.