The Desirability of Using the Index of Dissimilarity or Any Adjustment of It for Measuring Segregation: Reply to Falk, Cortese, and Cohen

Social Forces ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 717 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Winship
1978 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles F. Cortese ◽  
R. Frank Falk ◽  
Jack Cohen

2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (A) ◽  
pp. 281-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Stoyanov

Let F be a probability distribution function with density f. We assume that (a) F has finite moments of any integer positive order and (b) the classical problem of moments for F has a nonunique solution (F is M-indeterminate). Our goal is to describe a , where h is a ‘small' perturbation function. Such a class S consists of different distributions Fε (fε is the density of Fε) all sharing the same moments as those of F, thus illustrating the nonuniqueness of F, and of any Fε, in terms of the moments. Power transformations of distributions such as the normal, log-normal and exponential are considered and for them Stieltjes classes written explicitly. We define a characteristic of S called an index of dissimilarity and calculate its value in some cases. A new Stieltjes class involving a power of the normal distribution is presented. An open question about the inverse Gaussian distribution is formulated. Related topics are briefly discussed.


2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao-Dong Yu ◽  
Tian-Hong Luo ◽  
Hong-Zhang Zhou

The effects of non-native plantation established after clear-cutting were studied in Dongling Mountain region, Northern China. Pitfall catches of Carabus beetles from a non-native larch plantation were compared with those from two native forests, an oak forest and a mixed broad-leaved forest. More individuals were captured from the mixed broad-leaved forest and the larch plantation than from the oak forest. For the threemost abundant species in this area, C. crassesculptus peaked in abundance in the mixed broad-leaved forest; C. manifestus peaked in the larch plantation, and C. sculptipennis in the oak forest. Measured by PcoAusing Bray-Curtis index of dissimilarity, species composition of the larch plantation was different from the two native forests, but overlapped remarkably with them. All the three abundant species showed a similar positive relationship between local distribution and abundance. Captures of abundant species were clumped within the forest, but the extent of aggregation among forests was different. Monthly catches of total Carabus, and C. crassesculptus alone, peaked in June–August in all the three forests, but C. manifestus peaked in June and again in August. Our results suggest that the planting of non-native larch does not have a detrimental effect on Carabus assemblages in general, but it changes the spatial distribution and abundance compared to the native forests.


Social Forces ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 275-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Kestenbaum

1993 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Blackburn ◽  
Jennifer Jarman ◽  
Janet Siltanen

Despite the importance of occupational segregation as an area of investigation concerned with understanding women's employment status, pay levels, and promotional prospects during the last 20 years, there has been relatively little attention paid to the problems of trying to measure segregation levels in quantitative data. This paper argues that there are serious measurement problems which it illustrates by showing that two of the principal indices, the widely-used Index of Dissimilarity and the OECD's WE Index are highly flawed and produce unreliable results. It demonstrates the importance of these deficiencies using cross-national data from 9 countries for the period 1970-1982. The paper introduces a new way of analysing the form of these indices in the Basic Segregation Table, which is a 2 x 2 table of gendered occupations by sex. The paper suggests a new approach to measuring occupational segregation which provides more consistent and valid results. This is called Marginal Matching. The paper ends with an analysis of occupational gender segregation in England and Wales from 1951 to 1981. It concludes that, in contrast to research claims to date, the trend in segregation over this period is one of overall stability.


Author(s):  
Colin Clarke

It has already been shown that colour-class increasingly dissolved into class in the post-independence period in Kingston as the whites and the racial minorities left Jamaica, and the socially mobile blacks moved into middle-class and elite positions (Ch. 3). However, socio-economic neighbourhoods were still strongly set apart in 1991, and these distinctions were rooted in late-colonial residential patterns established on the Liguanea Plain (Chs. 1 and 2). This chapter is essentially a continuation of the previous one (Ch. 3), and builds on its findings. It concentrates on the spatial dimension of social processes by examining colour-class and race segregation—and desegregation—in the late-colonial and post-independence periods. Colour and race distributions are examined cartographically, and are supplemented by the index of dissimilarity, which measures the evenness/ unevenness of distribution of two categories or groups measured one against the other. The index of dissimilarity is also calculated for occupations, using them as a proxy for class, so that they may be compared to indices for race and colour. Finally, indices known as P* are calculated for colour, race, and occupational categories to measure a group’s comparative isolation, taking its size and the size of the group with which it is being compared into account. The spatial expression of the class structure of Kingston in 1960 and 1991 (to which the argument returns) provides the underpinning for the distribution of colour/racial categories at independence and since sovereignty (Figs. 1.8 and 2.6). The class mosaic was largely reflected in colour distributions in late-colonial times, and the location of the racial minorities was indicative of their degree of penetration of the creole colour-class hierarchy, and the level of their entrée. Likewise, changes in colour/racial distributions since independence may be used to examine the mobility into the elite and middle classes (and class areas) by the black and mixed populations, and to trace the social fortunes of the minorities, in the context of their demographic decline. The chapter begins with a discussion of changing colour and race distributions over the period 1943 to 1991, before examining the statistics for segregation. The white minority group in Kingston in 1943 was confined to the eastern, central, and northern suburbs and to some historic localities in the town centre, associated with business. The areas they occupied recorded at least median socio-economic status scores, and most of the heaviest concentrations were associated with areas of high rank.


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