Publication: A Kullback-Leibler measure of conditional segregation
Loading...
Identifiers
Publication date
2010-06
Defense date
Authors
Advisors
Tutors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Impact
Export
Abstract
In this paper the Kullback-Leibler notion of discrepancy (Kullback and Leibler, 1951) is used to propose
a measure of multigroup segregation over a set of organizational units within a multivariate framework.
Among the main results of the paper it is established that the Mutual Information index of segregation,
M, first proposed by Theil and Finizza (1971), whose ranking has been fully characterized in terms of
seven ordinal axioms by Frankel and Volij (2009), can be decomposed to isolate a term which captures
segregation conditional on any vector of covariates. Furthermore, consistent estimators for M and the
terms in its decomposition are proposed, and their asymptotic properties are obtained. The usefulness
of the approach is illustrated by looking at patterns of multiracial segregation across public schools in
the U.S. for the academic years 1989-90 and 2005-06. It is found that most within-cities segregation and
a significant part of within-districts segregation is accounted for by county-level income per capita and
wages per job, and teachers per pupil at school level.
Description
Keywords
Kullback-Leibler discrepancy, Conditional segregation, Asymptotic properties, Econometric models