In recent years the method of process tracing has become increasing popular in case studies as well as in methodological debates. However, publications on process tracing have mainly been methodological and abstract, while one needs to see how researchers do use and implement process tracing in their actual empirical work, and what kinds of results and theoretical contribution this method does provide social science with. In this panel, contributions will present specific and diverse case studies, using explicitly process tracing, in order to demonstrate how “process tracing” can be usefully used in socio-economic research. First, Nicholas Ziegler will present his process tracing approach to the Politics of Financial Reform in the US. Then, Patrick Emmenegger will analyze the historical development of job security regulations in Western Europe by combining three different explanatory approaches including process tracing in case study research, as an alternative to small to medium N quantitative approaches. Marius Busemeyer will then apply process tracing to the historical development of education and training systems in Germany, Sweden and the UK, with a particular focus on the actor constellations and politico-economic coalitions that promoted change. Christine Trampusch will also use process tracing to analyze the way large industrial companies and banks’ preferences changed in Germany regarding the use of rating. Finally, Bruno Palier and Christine Trampusch will analyze the variety of process tracing methods used in comparative political economy (especially in the study of skill formation, industrial relations, welfare state reforms and financial markets) in order to assess their theoretical contribution.