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Measuring Segregation When Units are Small: A Parametric Approach

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  • Roland Rathelot

Abstract

This article considers the issue of measuring segregation in a population of units that contain few individuals (e.g., establishments, classrooms). When units are small, the usual segregation indices, which are based on sample proportions, are biased. We propose a parametric solution: the probability that an individual within a given unit belongs to the minority is assumed to be distributed as a mixture of Beta distributions. The model can be estimated and indices deduced. Simulations show that this new method performs well compared to existing ones, even in the case of misspecification. An application to residential segregation in France according to parents’ nationalities is then undertaken. This article has online supplementary materials.

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  • Roland Rathelot, 2012. "Measuring Segregation When Units are Small: A Parametric Approach," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 546-553, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jnlbes:v:30:y:2012:i:4:p:546-553
    DOI: 10.1080/07350015.2012.707586
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    1. Kimberly Bayard & Judith Hellerstein & David Neumark & Kenneth Troske, 1999. "Why are Racial and Ethnic Wage Gaps Larger for Men than for Women? Exploring the Role of Segregation," NBER Working Papers 6997, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Judith K. Hellerstein & David Neumark, 2008. "Workplace Segregation in the United States: Race, Ethnicity, and Skill," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 459-477, August.
    3. Timothy Cogley & ThomasJ. Sargent, 2009. "Diverse Beliefs, Survival and the Market Price of Risk," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(536), pages 354-376, March.
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    5. Kremer, M & Maskin, E, 1996. "Wage Inequality and Segregation by Skill," Working papers 96-23, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    6. Martin Söderström & Roope Uusitalo, 2010. "School Choice and Segregation: Evidence from an Admission Reform," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 112(1), pages 55-76, March.
    7. repec:cai:poeine:pope_605_0645 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Rebecca Allen & Simon Burgess & Frank Windmeijer, 2009. "More Reliable Inference for Segregation Indices," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 09/216, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    9. Romain Aeberhardt & Denis Fougère & Julien Pouget & Roland Rathelot, 2010. "Wages and employment of French workers with African origin," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 23(3), pages 881-905, June.
    10. Heckman, James J & Willis, Robert J, 1977. "A Beta-logistic Model for the Analysis of Sequential Labor Force Participation by Married Women," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(1), pages 27-58, February.
    11. Roland Rathelot, 2012. "Measuring Segregation When Units are Small: A Parametric Approach," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 546-553, June.
    12. Kimberly Bayard & Judith Ilellerstein & David Neumark & Kenneth Troske, 1999. "Why Are Racial and Ethnic Wage Gaps Larger for Men than for Women? Exploring the Role of Segregation Using the New Worker-Establishment Characteristics Database," Contributions to Economic Analysis, in: The Creation and Analysis of Employer-Employee Matched Data, pages 175-203, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    13. Helena Persson & Gabriella Sjögren Lindquist, 2010. "The survival and growth of establishments: does gender segregation matter?," Research in Labor Economics, in: Jobs, Training, and Worker Well-being, pages 253-282, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    14. Lee, Jack C & Sabavala, Darius J, 1987. "Bayesian Estimation and Prediction for the Beta-Binomial Model," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 5(3), pages 357-367, July.
    15. Manon Domingues Dos Santos, 2005. "Travailleurs maghrébins et portugais en France. Le poids de l'origine," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 56(2), pages 447-464.
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    1. Glitz, Albrecht, 2014. "Ethnic segregation in Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 28-40.
    2. Roland Rathelot, 2012. "Measuring Segregation When Units are Small: A Parametric Approach," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 546-553, June.
    3. Matthew Gentzkow & Jesse M. Shapiro & Matt Taddy, 2019. "Measuring Group Differences in High‐Dimensional Choices: Method and Application to Congressional Speech," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(4), pages 1307-1340, July.
    4. Rathelot, Roland, 2014. "Ethnic differentials on the labor market in the presence of asymmetric spatial sorting: Set identification and estimation," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 154-167.
    5. Renan Xavier Cortes & Sergio Rey & Elijah Knaap & Levi John Wolf, 2020. "An open-source framework for non-spatial and spatial segregation measures: the PySAL segregation module," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 135-166, April.
    6. Xavier D'Haultfœuille & Roland Rathelot, 2017. "Measuring segregation on small units: A partial identification analysis," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 8(1), pages 39-73, March.

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