中研院社會所7/28 Disparity Analysis: A Tale of Two Approaches 講座
2023-07-13
中研院社會所7月份邀請美國哈佛大學周翔教授來所演講，相關活動訊息如下，歡迎踴躍報名參加。
【講題】Disparity Analysis: A Tale of Two Approaches
【講者】周 翔（美國哈佛大學社會學系教授）
【主持】江彥生（中央研究院社會學研究所研究員兼副所長）
【時間】2023.07.28，14:30-16:30
【地點】中央研究院社會學研究所802會議室（人文館南棟8樓）
【報名】https://forms.gle/iDLM7zNroeRcyH1N8
【演講簡介】
To understand the patterns and trends of various forms of inequality, quantitative social science research has typically relied on statistical models linking the conditional mean of an outcome of interest to a range of explanatory factors. A prime example of this approach is the widely used Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder (KOB) method. By fitting two linear models separately for an advantaged group and a disadvantaged group, the KOB method decomposes the between-group outcome disparity into two parts, a part explained by group differences in a set of background characteristics and an unexplained part often dubbed “residual inequality.”
In this talk, we explicate and contrast two distinct approaches to studying group disparities, which we term the descriptive approach, as epitomized by the KOB method and its variants, and the prescriptive approach, which focuses on how a disparity of interest would change under a hypothetical intervention to one or more manipulable treatments. For the descriptive approach, we propose a generalized KOB decomposition that considers multiple (sets of) explanatory variables sequentially. For the prescriptive approach, we introduce a variety of stylized interventions, such as lottery-type and affirmative-action-type interventions that close between-group gaps in treatment.
We illustrate the two approaches to disparity analysis by assessing the Black-White gap in college completion, how it is statistically explained by racial differences in demographic and socioeconomic background, family structure, ability and behavior, and college selectivity, and the extent to which it would be reduced under hypothetical reallocations of college-goers from different racial/economic backgrounds into different tiers of college --- reallocations that could be targeted by race- or class-conscious admissions policies.
【講者簡介】
Xiang Zhou is Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. He is also a faculty affiliate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, and Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. His research broadly concerns inequality, education, causal inference, and statistical and computational methods. His work has appeared in American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, among other peer-reviewed journals. Before coming to Harvard, Zhou worked as a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University. He received a PhD in Sociology and Statistics from the University of Michigan in 2015.
【活動說明】本場次活動規劃現場參與及Webex線上會議參與形式。
【講題】Disparity Analysis: A Tale of Two Approaches
【講者】周 翔（美國哈佛大學社會學系教授）
【主持】江彥生（中央研究院社會學研究所研究員兼副所長）
【時間】2023.07.28，14:30-16:30
【地點】中央研究院社會學研究所802會議室（人文館南棟8樓）
【報名】https://forms.gle/iDLM7zNroeRcyH1N8
【演講簡介】
To understand the patterns and trends of various forms of inequality, quantitative social science research has typically relied on statistical models linking the conditional mean of an outcome of interest to a range of explanatory factors. A prime example of this approach is the widely used Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder (KOB) method. By fitting two linear models separately for an advantaged group and a disadvantaged group, the KOB method decomposes the between-group outcome disparity into two parts, a part explained by group differences in a set of background characteristics and an unexplained part often dubbed “residual inequality.”
In this talk, we explicate and contrast two distinct approaches to studying group disparities, which we term the descriptive approach, as epitomized by the KOB method and its variants, and the prescriptive approach, which focuses on how a disparity of interest would change under a hypothetical intervention to one or more manipulable treatments. For the descriptive approach, we propose a generalized KOB decomposition that considers multiple (sets of) explanatory variables sequentially. For the prescriptive approach, we introduce a variety of stylized interventions, such as lottery-type and affirmative-action-type interventions that close between-group gaps in treatment.
We illustrate the two approaches to disparity analysis by assessing the Black-White gap in college completion, how it is statistically explained by racial differences in demographic and socioeconomic background, family structure, ability and behavior, and college selectivity, and the extent to which it would be reduced under hypothetical reallocations of college-goers from different racial/economic backgrounds into different tiers of college --- reallocations that could be targeted by race- or class-conscious admissions policies.
【講者簡介】
Xiang Zhou is Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. He is also a faculty affiliate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, and Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. His research broadly concerns inequality, education, causal inference, and statistical and computational methods. His work has appeared in American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, among other peer-reviewed journals. Before coming to Harvard, Zhou worked as a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University. He received a PhD in Sociology and Statistics from the University of Michigan in 2015.
【活動說明】本場次活動規劃現場參與及Webex線上會議參與形式。
