International economic policy: a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis on think tanks in the press

Figures & data

Table 1. European Union top international economics policy think tanks.

Rank	Name	Growth	Country
2	Bruegel	11,19%	Belgium
4	Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies	14,56%	Austria
7	Adam Smith Institute	8,42%	United Kingdom
10	Chatham House	6,48%	United Kingdom
18	Centre for European Policy Studies	0,91%	Belgium
22	Kiel Institute for the World Economy	1,66%	Germany
27	European Centre for International Political Economy	9,55%	Belgium
33	Institute for International Economic Studies	25,93%	Sweden
38	Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales	20,11%	France
57	French Institute of International Relations	5,62%	France
61	Austrian Institute of Economic Research	−3,62%	Austria
72	Institute for International Political Studies	23,26%	Italy
76	Macroeconomic Policy Institute	10,36%	Germany
77	National Institute of Economic and Social Research	−0,80%	United Kingdom
79	TARKI Social Research Institute	−4,89%	Hungary
82	World Institute of Development Economics Research	43,98%	Finland
84	Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)	1,30%	France
86	Institut Montaigne	18,65%	France
87	Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change	4,74%	Germany

Source: Own elaboration.

Table 2. Conditions.

ATTRIBUTE		CONCEPT
Tipo	Condition	Indicator	Source
Outcome	GROWTH	Growth of world media representation. Average interannual variation rate of the media representation of each think tank for the period 2009–2018 according to the total number of contents published worldwide.	Factiva®
Think tank condition	EXP	Think tank experience. Number of years of experience of each think tank, taking as reference the year of its foundation.	Factiva®
Media conditions	LAN	Languages. Number of languages in which each think tank published its contents throughout the 2009–2018 period.	Factiva®
	SUBJECT	Subject concentration. Percentage of thematic concentration achieved in international media, calculating the relative importance of the contents of the 10 main topics discussed by each think tank throughout the 2009–2018 period.	Factiva®
	MEDIA	Media concentration. Percentage of concentration in international media, calculating the relative importance of the contents published by the 10 main media topics for each think tank throughout the 2009–2018 period.	Factiva®
Economic conditions	COMP*	Country competitiveness. Average competitiveness for the 2009–2018 period of the country in which each think tank develops its main activity. Calculation from the Global Competitiveness Index (WEF) with a base index number 100 constructed from a scale of 1–7.	World Economic Forum (WEF)
	EUR	Country with the single currency (with the Euro as currency). It takes values 0, 1 and registers the countries that have the euro as legal tender, from the countries in which each of the think tanks develops their main activity.	European Central Bank (ECB)

* The mean of the 10 years under study has been considered, since in all the countries studied the trend variation is positive and the differences in the mean interannual variation rates are not statistically relevant.

Source: Own elaboration.

Table 3. Calibration and descriptive statistics.^a

CONDITION	CALIBRATION			STATISTICS
Concept	Fully inside	Maximum ambiguity	Fully outside	Max	Min	Average (standard deviation)	Median
GROWTH	22.40	10.39	0	43.98	−4.89	10.39 (12.00)	8.42
EXP	40	20	10	104	6	46.21 (31.77)	40
LAN	15	10	5	27	4	14.89 (6.99)	15
SUBJECT	60	50	40	68.61	39.02	56.01 (8.24)	56.06
MEDIA	60	50	40	87.45	39.95	58.63 (13.80)	57.47
COMP	95	85	80	100	78.15	94.50 (5.94)	93.80
EUR	1	–	0	–	–	–	–

^a See Appendix.

Source: Own elaboration.

Figure 1. Regression of world media representation of the sample (19 think tanks).

Source: Own elaboration

Figure 2. Growth of world media representation per years of the sample (19 think tanks).

Source: Own elaboration

Figure 3. Growth of world media representation, per years and per think tanks.

Source: Own elaboration

Table 4. Analysis of necessary conditions.

CONDITIONS	SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES		UNSUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES
	Consistency	Coverage	Consistency	Coverage
EXP	0.7634	0.4684	0.7256	0.5846
∼EXP	0.3230	0.4727	0.3402	0.6537
LAN	0.6016	0.3584	0.8919	0.6976
∼LAN	0.4923	0.7763	0.1796	0.3718
SUBJECT	0.7961	0.4778	0.8329	0.6563
∼SUBJECT	0.4272	0.6607	0.3372	0.6847
MEDIA	0.8985	0.5740	0.7049	0.5913
∼MEDIA	0.3602	0.4818	0.4921	0.8642
COMP	0.8908	0.4472	0.9053	0.5967
∼COMP	0.1967	0.6128	0.1614	0.6599
EUR	0.8009	0.4700	0.6880	0.5300
∼EUR	0.1990	0.3270	0.3120	0.6730

∼ means absence of an attribute.

Source: Own elaboration.

Table 5. Analysis of sufficiency for the outcome growth of world media representation^(b).

	ANTECEDENT CONDITIONS (intermediate solution and core conditions)^(c)
	Successful strategies			Unsuccessful strategies
Condition / Pathways	1a	1b	1c	2a	2b	2c	2d	2e
EXP	●	●				•	○	•
LAN	○	○	•	●	●	•	○	•
SUBJECT	•	•	○	•			•	•
MEDIA		•	●	•	○	•	•	º
COMP	•		•		•	•	•	•
EUR	º	•	●	○	•	º	•
Think tanks explained	1	2	2	2	5	2	3	2
Raw coverage	0.1204	0.2975	0.3328	0.2175	0.4120	0.1829	0.1539	0.3001
Unique coverage	0.1204	0.2146	0.1375	0.0781	0.1629	0.0435	0.0988	0.0304
Consistency	0.9958	0.9951	0.9053	0.9973	0.9696	0.8551	0.7910	0.9980
Intermediate solution
Coverage	0.7473			0.8021
Consistency	0.8495			0.9046
Parsimonious solution
Coverage	0.7475			0.8120
Consistency	0.8388			0.8638
Cutoff
Frequency	1			1
Consistency	0.8756			0.7910
Directional expectations	(1, - , - , 1, 1, - )			(1, - , - , 1, 1, - )

^(b) More detailed results are available at request to the authors.

^(c) Black circles indicate the presence of a condition, and white circles indicate its absence. Large circles indicate core conditions; small ones, peripheral conditions. Blank spaces indicate “don’t care”.

Source: Compiled by the authors using the software program fsQCA 3.0.

Table 6. Successful strategies^(c).

Pathway	Cases
1a	Institute for International Economic Studies
1 b	Institute for International Political Studies World Institute of Development Economics Research
1c	Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales Institut Montaigne

(c) Cases with greater than 0.5 membership in term.

Source: Own elaboration.

Table 7. Unsuccessful strategies^(d).

Pathway	Cases
2a	National Institute of Economic and Social Research TARKI Social Research Institute
2 b	Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Centre for European Policy Studies French Institute of International Relations Bruegel European Centre for International Political Economy
2c	National Institute of Economic and Social Research Adam Smith Institute
2d	Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change Macroeconomic Policy Institute
2e	French Institute of International Relations Chatham House

(d) Cases with greater than 0.5 membership in term.

Source: Own elaboration.

Table

THINK TANK	OUTCOME	CONDITIONS
	GROWTH	EXP	LAN	SUBJECT	MEDIA	COMP	EUR
Bruegel	11.19	14	14	49.92	48.79	93.80	1
Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies	14.56	45	15	56.06	62.66	93.58	1
Adam Smith Institute	8.42	41	21	46.64	64.76	97.55	0
Chatham House	6.48	98	27	53.67	47.73	97.55	0
Centre for European Policy Studies	0.91	35	23	47.13	45.06	93.80	1
Kiel Institute for the World Economy	1.66	104	25	53.91	50.40	99.30	1
European Centre for International Political Economy	9.55	12	15	55.04	49.49	93.80	1
Institute for International Economic Studies	25.93	56	4	66.28	47.27	100	0
Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales	20.11	40	14	39.02	62.01	93.65	1
French Institute of International Relations	5.62	39	17	58.36	45.57	93.65	1
Austrian Institute of Economic Research	−3.62	91	20	65.69	77.48	94.24	1
Institute for International Political Studies	23.26	84	4	66.77	68.36	80.82	1
Macroeconomic Policy Institute	10.36	13	8	66.42	51.81	100	1
National Institute of Economic and Social Research	−0.80	80	20	56.16	61.55	98.24	0
TARKI Social Research Institute	−4.89	11	13	68.61	87.38	78.15	0
World Institute of Development Economics Research	43.98	34	6	57.92	87.45	100	1
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)	01.30	57	19	49.39	39.95	93.65	1
Institut Montaigne	18.65	18	12	47.64	57.47	93.65	1
Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change	4.74	6	6	59.57	58.69	100	1

Source: Own elaboration.