Using Ratio Variables to Control for Population Size

Glenn Firebaugh and Jack P. Gibbs
Additional contact information
Glenn Firebaugh: Vanderbilt University
Jack P. Gibbs: Vanderbilt University

Sociological Methods & Research, 1986, vol. 15, issue 1-2, 101-117

Abstract: This article uses Monte Carlo computer simulation to assess two alternative ways to control for population size in regression analysis. Contrary to the claim of some social scientists, regression analyses that use ratio variables to control for size (the “ratio method†of control) are not inherently inferior to those that use a separate control variable (the “component method†of control). The ratio method appears to be inferior only because comparisons of the two methods typically omit one of the terms in the ratio regression equation. When that term is added, the ratio method outperforms the component method under conditions that are often realized in social science research. Critics of ratio variables are correct, however, in claiming that measurement error in population size, the common denominator of the ratio variables, can seriously distort the results of analyses using the ratio method. But even in that circumstance it is not necessarily the case that components should be used rather than ratios because, as the simulations demonstrate, measurement error bias can be as serious for the component method as it is for the ratio method.

Date: 1986
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0049124186015001008 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:somere:v:15:y:1986:i:1-2:p:101-117

DOI: 10.1177/0049124186015001008

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Sociological Methods & Research
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().