Direct comparison or indirect comparison via a series of counterfactual decompositions?

2023/03/08 by Anna Naszódi, Naszodi, Anna
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Business, Management and Accounting · Mathematics · Psychology · #Assortative mating #Computer science #Counterfactual thinking #Econometrics #FOS: Economics and business #General Economics (econ.GN) #Mathematical economics #Mathematics #Mating #Organic Food and Agriculture #Outcome (game theory) #Point (geometry) #Psychology #Sensory Analysis and Statistical Methods #Series (stratigraphy) #Social psychology #Statistics #Wine Industry and Tourism

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2303.04905

openalex publication_date 2023/03/08 · openalex created_date 2023/03/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We illustrate the point with an empirical analysis of assortative mating in the US, namely, that the outcome of comparing two distant groups can be sensitive to whether comparing the groups directly, or indirectly via a series of counterfactual decompositions involving the groups' comparisons to some intermediate groups. We argue that the latter approach is typically more fit for its purpose.

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