The Quantitative Analysis of Space Policy: A Review of Current Methods and Future Directions

Decades of space policy research have yielded an eclectic, multidisciplinary research agenda replete with findings that are relevant for theory and policy. Absent from the literature, however, is a systematic review and discussion of the data and research methods used to ascertain these findings. This is important for research progress because data and method choice have implications for the validity of the findings, potential contributions to theory, and efficacy of suggested policy prescriptions. Motivated by advances in computational social science, this article reviews the quantitative space policy literature and finds scope for further development with respect to data sources, method selection, and substantive topics of inquiry. Given these findings, two methodological areas are introduced, namely text and network analysis, and their utility is illustrated through an extension of a previous public opinion study, as well as a novel application regarding state support for international space law. This review might be relevant to scholars and practitioners interested in the empirical study of space policy. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.