About The Course
This graduate research seminar is designed to introduce the student to the new methodologies recently proposed for the analysis of aggregate data to draw inferences about individuals. After reviewing the problem of the "ecological fa
llacy" popularized by Robinson in 1950 (although well known for decades previously), we will examine historical attempts by political scientists, historians, geographers, and anthropologists to response to ecological inference problems. Then we will
take Gary King's proposed solution to the problem of ecological inference as well as develop a fundamental understanding of the workings of the software associated with this solution. Finally, we will examine the latest critiques of this new approach and
assess the state of knowledge about ecological inference at the end of 1997.
Required Textbooks:
C. Achen and W. P. Shively (1995) Cross-Level Inference. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
G. King (1997) A Solution to the Ecological Inference Problem: Reconstructing Individual Behavior from Aggregate Data. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.