A Solution to the Ecological Inference Problem: Reconstructing Individual Behavior from Aggregate Data


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This book provides a solution to the ecological inference problem, which has plagued users of statistical methods for over seventy-five years: How can researchers reliably infer individual-level behavior from aggregate (ecological) data? In political science, this question arises when individual-level surveys are unavailable (for instance, local or comparative electoral politics), unreliable (racial politics), insufficient (political geography), or infeasible (political history). This ecological inference problem also confronts researchers in numerous areas of major significance in public policy, and other academic disciplines, ranging from epidemiology and marketing to sociology and quantitative history. Although many have attempted to make such cross-level inferences, scholars agree that all existing methods yield very inaccurate conclusions about the world. In this volume, Gary King lays out a unique--and reliable--solution to this venerable problem.
King begins with a qualitative overview, readable even by those without a statistical background. He then unifies the apparently diverse findings in the methodological literature, so that only one aggregation problem remains to be solved. He then presents his solution, as well as empirical evaluations of the solution that include over 16,000 comparisons of his estimates from real aggregate data to the known individual-level answer. The method works in practice.
King's solution to the ecological inference problem will enable empirical researchers to investigate substantive questions that have heretofore proved unanswerable, and move forward fields of inquiry in which progress has been stifled by this problem.
p>A Solution to the Ecological Inference Problem: Reconstructing Individual Behavior from Aggregate Data Review
I think readers should be cautioned against some of the sales hype that surrounds this book. While it is an advance in the study of certain types of ecological inference problems, it is a marginal advance. Depending on the data, it sometimes performs better, sometimes worse than other techniques, including orginary least squares. Look at some of the critical reviews before you accept the claims made by this book.Most of the consumer Reviews tell that the "A Solution to the Ecological Inference Problem: Reconstructing Individual Behavior from Aggregate Data" are high quality item. You can read each testimony from consumers to find out cons and pros from A Solution to the Ecological Inference Problem: Reconstructing Individual Behavior from Aggregate Data ...

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