est_weighted {birdie}

Calculate Weighted Estimate of (Discrete) Outcomes By Race

Description

Calculates the "standard" weighted estimator of conditional distributions of an outcome variable Y by race R, using BISG probabilities. This estimator, while commonly used, is only appropriate if Y \perp R \mid X, S, where S and X are the last names and covariates (possibly including geography) used in making the BISG probabilities. In most cases this assumption is not plausible and [birdie()] should be used instead. See the references below for more discussion as to selecting the right estimator.

Up to Monte Carlo error, the weighted estimate is equivalent to performing multiple imputations of the race vector from the BISG probabilities and then using them inside a weighted average or linear regression.

Usage

est_weighted(
  r_probs,
  formula,
  data = NULL,
  weights = NULL,
  prefix = "pr_",
  se_boot = 0
)

## S3 method for class 'est_weighted'
print(x, ...)

## S3 method for class 'est_weighted'
summary(object, ...)

Arguments

r_probs

A data frame or matrix of BISG probabilities, with one row per individual. The output of [bisg()] can be used directly here.

formula

A two-sided formula object describing the estimator structure. The left-hand side is the outcome variable, which must be discrete. Subgroups for which to calculate estimates may be specified by adding covariates on the right-hand side. Subgroup estimates are available with 'coef(..., subgroup=TRUE)' and 'tidy(..., subgroup=TRUE)'.

data

An optional data frame containing the variables named in 'formula'.

weights

An optional numeric vector specifying weights.

prefix

If 'r_probs' is a data frame, the columns containing racial probabilities will be selected as those with names starting with 'prefix'. The default will work with the output of [bisg()].

se_boot

The number of bootstrap replicates to use to compute an approximate covariance matrix for the estimator. If no bootstrapping is used, an analytical estimate of standard errors will be returned as '$se'. For bootstrapping, when there are fewer than 1,000 individuals or 100 or fewer replicates, a Bayesian bootstrap is used instead (i.e., weights are drawn from a \text{Dirichlet}(1, 1, ..., 1) distribution, which produces more reliable estimates.

...

Additional arguments to generic methods (ignored).

object, x

An object of class 'est_weighted'.

Value

An object of class 'est_weighted', inheriting from ['birdie'][birdie::birdie-class], for which many methods are available. The model estimates may be accessed with 'coef()'. Uncertainty estimates, if available, can be accessed with '$se' and [vcov.birdie()].

Methods (by generic)

• print(est_weighted): Print a summary of the model fit.

• summary(est_weighted): Print a more detailed summary of the model fit.

References

McCartan, C., Fisher, R., Goldin, J., Ho, D.E., & Imai, K. (2024). Estimating Racial Disparities when Race is Not Observed. Available at https://www.nber.org/papers/w32373.

Examples

data(pseudo_vf)

r_probs = bisg(~ nm(last_name) + zip(zip), data=pseudo_vf)

# Process zip codes to remove missing values
pseudo_vf$zip = proc_zip(pseudo_vf$zip)

est_weighted(r_probs, turnout ~ 1, data=pseudo_vf)

est = est_weighted(r_probs, turnout ~ zip, data=pseudo_vf)
tidy(est, subgroup=TRUE)