Decomposing primary and secondary effects: A new decomposition method

TY - JOUR

T1 - Decomposing primary and secondary effects

T2 - A new decomposition method

AU - Karlson, Kristian Bernt

AU - Holm, Anders

PY - 2011/6

Y1 - 2011/6

N2 - One strand of educational inequality research aims at decomposing the effect of social class origin on educational choices into primary and secondary effects. We formalize this distinction and present a new and simple method that allows empirical assessment of the relative magnitudes of primary and secondary effects. Contrary to other decomposition methods, this new method is unbiased, is more intuitive, and decomposes effects of both discrete and continuous measures of social origin. The method also provides analytically derived statistical tests and is easily calculated with standard statistical software. We give examples using the Danish Longitudinal Survey of Youth.

AB - One strand of educational inequality research aims at decomposing the effect of social class origin on educational choices into primary and secondary effects. We formalize this distinction and present a new and simple method that allows empirical assessment of the relative magnitudes of primary and secondary effects. Contrary to other decomposition methods, this new method is unbiased, is more intuitive, and decomposes effects of both discrete and continuous measures of social origin. The method also provides analytically derived statistical tests and is easily calculated with standard statistical software. We give examples using the Danish Longitudinal Survey of Youth.

U2 - 10.1016/j.rssm.2010.12.005

DO - 10.1016/j.rssm.2010.12.005

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0276-5624

VL - 29

SP - 221

EP - 237

JO - Research in Social Stratification and Mobility

JF - Research in Social Stratification and Mobility

IS - 2

ER -