Methodological questions come in many sizes. For those who like truly enormous questions, and for those who simply cannot avoid big questions, this volume of Sociological Methodology offers a major statement by James J. Heckman on the measurement of causal effects. Big questions and big answers require big discussions. Michael E. Sobel provides the necessary critique in a discussion that might serve as a chapter in its own right, were it not focused on Heckman?s chapter. But smaller questions are important too, and the answers to them often spell the difference between ambiguous findings and successful, useful research. In this volume: Rashotte, Webster, and Whitmeyer remind readers that small differences in instruction wording can produce substantial differences in findings. Lynch and Brown give readers new methods for calculating the life table quantities that are the mainstay not only of formal demography but many applied social...