Log-Linear Analysis of Contingency Tables: an Introduction for Historians with an Application to Thernstrom on The" Floating Proletariat"
DIVISION OF THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91125 LOG-LINEAR ANALYSIS OF CONTINGENCY TABLES: AN INTRODUCTION FOR HISTORIANS WITH AN APPLICATION TO THERNSTROM ON THE "FLOATING PROLETARIAT" Morgan Kousser J. California Institute of Technology Gary W. Cox California Institute of Technology David W. Galenson University of Chicago SOCIAL SCIENCE WORKING PAPER 417 February 1982 SUMMARY For historians or other social scientists who se data is available in discrete (nominal- or ordina l-level) form, recently developed "log-linear" mu ltivariate statistical techniques offer considerable advantages over commonsensical devices and are in many respects superior to such multivariate methods as mu ltiple classification analysis, weighted least-squares, and logit. Reana lyzing Thernstrom' s Boston data on geographic mobility. we explain the ideas beh ind and the procedures of log-linear analysis explicitly, step-by-step. Intended for people who are already somewhat familiar with Rtatistics ( say, through mul tiple regression) , the paper is self-contained and as simple as we could make it. Af ter reading it carefully , one should be well prepared to perform such an analysis himself. Substantively. we sketch a simple economic model which points to age as an important determinant of the decision to move or stay, and our results cast doubt on Thernstrom's tentatively offered notion of a "floa ting proletariat." All.ALYSIS OF CONTINGENCY TABLES: U>u-Ll11EJ\J: AN INTilODUCTION FOR HISTORIANS WITH APPLI CATION TO TIIERNSTROM ON TIIE AN • "FLOATING PROLETARIAT" Morgan Kous ser J, Gary W. Cox David W. Galenson Suppose a researche r has inform ation on several attributes of a collection of individuals, and that the data he has is avail able only in qualitativ e (synonyms are categorical, discrete, polytomous, or ordinal- or nominal-level ), as oppo sed to quantitativ e (continuous or interval-level) fo rm.
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