Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36021 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4288
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
How do individuals shape societies? How do societies shape individuals? This paper develops a framework for studying the connections between micro and macro phenomena. The framework builds on two ingredients widely used in social science - population and variable. Starting with the simplest case of one population and one variable, we systematically introduce additional variables and additional populations. This approach enables simple and natural introduction and exposition of such operations as pooling, matching, regression, hierarchical and multilevel modeling, calculating summary measures, finding the distribution of a function of random variables, and choosing between two or more distributions. To illustrate the procedures we draw on problems from a variety of topical domains in social science, including an extended illustration focused on residential racial segregation. Three useful features of the framework are: First, similarities in the mathematical structure underlying distinct substantive questions, spanning different levels of aggregation and different substantive domains, become apparent. Second, links between distinct methodological procedures and operations become apparent. Third, the framework has a potential for growth, as new models and operations become incorporated into the framework.
Subjects: 
Micro-macro link
justice
comparison
status
power
identity
happiness
personal quantitative characteristics
personal qualitative characteristics
deductive theory
probability distributions
lognormal distribution
Pareto distribution
power-function distribution
rectangular distribution
exponential distribution
normal distribution
pooling
matching
multilevel modeling
inequality
race
segregation
JEL: 
C02
C16
D31
D6
D7
D8
J71
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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