Abstract
Ecological inference is a general statistical problem where a response variable is not available at the subject level because summary statistics are reported for groups only. It consists of merging information from different databases which are not linked to each other at the record level. We consider an election scenario where in each electoral precinct the fraction of voting-age people who turn out to vote, the fraction of black population and the number of voting-age people are observed. The proportions of blacks and of whites who vote are unobserved because electoral results and census data are not linked.
This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd edition, 2008. Edited by Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume.
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King, G., Rosen, O., Tanner, M. (2008). Ecological Inference. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2336-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2336-1
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95121-5
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