Colomer, Josep M.Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament d'Economia i Empresa2017-07-262017-07-262007-03-01European Political Science, 6, 2, May 2007http://hdl.handle.net/10230/1139In order to have references for discussing mathematical menus in political science, I review the most common types of mathematical formulae used in physics and chemistry, as well as some mathematical advances in economics. Several issues appear relevant: variables should be well defined and measurable; the relationships between variables may be non-linear; the direction of causality should be clearly identified and not assumed on a priori grounds. On these bases, theoretically-driven equations on political matters can be validated by empirical tests and can predict observable phenomena.application/pdfengL'accés als continguts d'aquest document queda condicionat a l'acceptació de les condicions d'ús establertes per la següent llicència Creative Commonsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/workingPapernatural and social scienceseconometricspolitical science methodsmathematical modelsregression analysisinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess