IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v568y2000i1p172-185.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Deracializing Social Statistics: Problems in the Quantification of Race

Author

Listed:
  • Tukufu Zuberi

    (University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract

Race is usually defined as an individual attribute fixed at birth and is employed by researchers as a variable with potential for causing change in some other aspect of that same individual. When an individual's race can change (as in Brazil), race is not an attribute but a dynamic characteristic dependent on other social circumstances. In the United States, an individual's race cannot change and thus is considered an individual attribute. As such, social statisticians may have measured racial classification correctly. The major error is in how race has been interpreted. The author suggests a new language to express things that our current language handles inadequately. This new language attempts to increase the efficiency of communication about the statistical analysis of race.

Suggested Citation

  • Tukufu Zuberi, 2000. "Deracializing Social Statistics: Problems in the Quantification of Race," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 568(1), pages 172-185, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:568:y:2000:i:1:p:172-185
    DOI: 10.1177/000271620056800113
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000271620056800113
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/000271620056800113?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James J. Heckman, 1976. "The Common Structure of Statistical Models of Truncation, Sample Selection and Limited Dependent Variables and a Simple Estimator for Such Models," NBER Chapters, in: Annals of Economic and Social Measurement, Volume 5, number 4, pages 475-492, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. D. R. Cox, 1992. "Causality: Some Statistical Aspects," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 155(2), pages 291-301, March.
    3. Shelly J. Lundberg, 1991. "The Enforcement of Equal Opportunity Laws Under Imperfect Information: Affirmative Action and Alternatives," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(1), pages 309-326.
    4. Douglas Anderton & Andy Anderson & John Oakes & Michael Fraser, 1994. "Environmental Equity: The Demographics of Dumping," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 31(2), pages 229-248, May.
    5. Phelps, Edmund S, 1972. "The Statistical Theory of Racism and Sexism," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(4), pages 659-661, September.
    6. Coate, Stephen & Loury, Glenn C, 1993. "Will Affirmative-Action Policies Eliminate Negative Stereotypes?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1220-1240, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ajit Mishra, 1998. "A Theory Of Discrimination Based On Signalling And Strategic Information Acquisition," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 088, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.
    2. Brishti Guha & Prabal Roy Chowdhury, 2015. "Affirmative action in the presence of a creamy layer," Discussion Papers 15-06, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
    3. Stephen L. Ross, 2005. "The Continuing Practice and Impact of Discrimination," Working papers 2005-19, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Jul 2006.
    4. Dario Cestau & Dennis Epple & Holger Sieg, 2017. "Admitting Students to Selective Education Programs: Merit, Profiling, and Affirmative Action," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(3), pages 761-797.
    5. Guha, Brishti & Roy Chowdhury, Prabal, 2017. "Affirmative Action in the Presence of a Creamy Layer: Identity or Class Based?," MPRA Paper 78686, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Chen, Hung-Ju & Sultana, Rezina, 2013. "Job Reservation and Intergenerational Transmission of Preferences," MPRA Paper 45036, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Ruzzier, Christian A. & Woo, Marcelo D., 2023. "Discrimination with inaccurate beliefs and confirmation bias," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 379-390.
    8. Balsa, Ana I. & McGuire, Thomas G., 2001. "Statistical discrimination in health care," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 881-907, November.
    9. Bart Hobijn & Carlos A. Medina-Durango, 2000. "Is Discrimination Due to a Coordination Failure?," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1758, Econometric Society.
    10. Barr & Oduro, Abena, 2000. "Ethnicity and wage determination in Ghana," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2506, The World Bank.
    11. Moro, Andrea & Norman, Peter, 2003. "Affirmative action in a competitive economy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(3-4), pages 567-594, March.
    12. Nathalie Havet & Catherine Sofer, 2008. "Why Do Women's Wages Increase So Slowly Throughout Their Career? A Dynamic Model of Statistical Discrimination," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 22(2), pages 291-314, June.
    13. Rezina Sultana, 2017. "Affirmative Action And Dynamics Of Work-Ethic Preferences," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(3), pages 1350-1369, July.
    14. Dennis Epple & Richard Romano & Holger Sieg, 2008. "Diversity and Affirmative Action in Higher Education," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 10(4), pages 475-501, August.
    15. Castro Campos, Bente, 2013. "Human capital differences or labor market discrimination? The occupational outcomes of ethnic minorities in rural Guizhou (China)," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 73, number 73.
    16. repec:dun:dpaper:88 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Laurence Kranich, 2017. "Historical discrimination and optimal remediation," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 48(1), pages 239-265, January.
    18. Guha, Brishti & Roy Chowdhury, Prabal, 2022. "Affirmative action in the presence of income heterogeneity," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 510-533.
    19. Barr, Abigail & Oduro, Abena, 2002. "Ethnic fractionalization in an African labour market," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 355-379, August.
    20. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:3143-3259 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Kevin Lang & Ariella Kahn-Lang Spitzer, 2020. "Race Discrimination: An Economic Perspective," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(2), pages 68-89, Spring.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:568:y:2000:i:1:p:172-185. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.