Browse reusable Agent Skills, each with a clear purpose and practical guidance.
Apply Difference-in-Differences (DID) to estimate causal treatment effects by comparing changes in outcomes between treatment and control groups. Use this skill when the user evaluates policy interventions, natural experiments, or regulatory changes, needs to test parallel trends, or when they ask 'did this policy work', 'how do I identify causal effects without randomization', or 'what is the treatment effect'.
Apply Granovetter's embeddedness theory to analyze how economic behavior is embedded in ongoing social relations, avoiding both over-socialized and under-socialized accounts. Use this skill when the user needs to explain why market transactions deviate from pure economic rationality, analyze how trust and social ties shape business dealings, evaluate structural vs relational embeddedness in inter-firm networks, or when they ask 'why do firms prefer existing partners over cheaper alternatives', 'how do social relationships shape economic outcomes', or 'is this market truly arms-length'.
Apply Grounded Theory (Glaser and Strauss) to build theory inductively from qualitative data through open, axial, and selective coding. Use this skill when the user needs to develop new theory from data rather than test existing hypotheses, conduct theoretical sampling and constant comparison, determine when theoretical saturation is reached, or when they ask 'what theory explains this phenomenon', 'how do I code qualitative data systematically', or 'when do I stop collecting data'.
Apply Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) to analyze nested data structures with random intercepts and slopes, accounting for intra-class correlation and cross-level interactions. Use this skill when the user has students nested in schools, employees in firms, or repeated measures in individuals, needs to partition variance across levels, or when they ask 'how do I handle nested data', 'what is ICC', or 'do group-level factors moderate individual-level relationships'.
Apply meta-analysis to synthesize effect sizes across multiple studies, assess heterogeneity, and evaluate publication bias. Use this skill when the user needs to combine findings from prior research, compare fixed-effect vs random-effects models, compute pooled effect sizes, or when they ask 'what does the overall evidence say', 'how do I combine results across studies', or 'is there publication bias'.
Design and conduct mixed methods research using convergent, explanatory sequential, or exploratory sequential strategies with genuine integration of qualitative and quantitative strands. Use this skill when the user needs to choose a mixed methods design, integrate qualitative and quantitative data at design, methods, or interpretation levels, justify mixing on pragmatist grounds, or when they ask 'which mixed methods design should I use', 'how do I integrate qual and quant findings', or 'is running both qual and quant enough to be mixed methods'.
Apply narrative research methods to understand human experience through stories, analyzing narrative structure, temporality, and meaning-making in life stories and oral histories. Use this skill when the user needs to analyze how people construct meaning through storytelling, examine narrative structure and plot, conduct life story or oral history research, or when they ask 'how do stories shape identity', 'how do I analyze a life narrative', or 'what does this story reveal about experience'.
Apply Kuhn's paradigm theory to analyze scientific progress through the cycle of normal science, anomalies, crisis, and revolution. Use this skill when the user needs to understand why a field resists change, trace paradigm shifts in a discipline, analyze incommensurability between competing frameworks, or when they ask 'why do scientists ignore contradictory evidence', 'how do scientific revolutions happen', or 'why can't proponents of different paradigms agree'.
Apply phenomenological methods including bracketing (epoche), lived experience inquiry, and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to uncover the essence of human experience. Use this skill when the user needs to study how people experience a phenomenon from the first-person perspective, apply Husserlian descriptive or Heideggerian interpretive phenomenology, conduct IPA with idiographic focus, or when they ask 'what is the lived experience of X', 'how do I bracket my assumptions', or 'how do I do IPA'.
Apply Partial Least Squares SEM (PLS-SEM) with reflective and formative measurement models to maximize explained variance in endogenous constructs. Use this skill when the user has small samples, formative indicators, or exploratory models, needs to assess AVE/CR/HTMT, or when they ask 'should I use PLS or CB-SEM', 'how do I handle formative constructs', or 'what is the path coefficient significance'.