JSM 2005 Online Program

Abstract #302601

This is the preliminary program for the 2005 Joint Statistical Meetings in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Currently included in this program is the "technical" program, schedule of invited, topic contributed, regular contributed and poster sessions; Continuing Education courses (August 7-10, 2005); and Committee and Business Meetings. This on-line program will be updated frequently to reflect the most current revisions.

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Activity Number:	338
Type:	Invited
Date/Time:	Wednesday, August 10, 2005 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
Sponsor:	Social Statistics Section
Abstract - #302601
Title:	Constructing Summary Indices of Social Well-being: A Model for the Effect of Heterogeneous Importance Weights
Author(s):	Michael R. Hagerty*+ and Kenneth C. Land
Companies:	University of California, Davis and Duke University
Address:	Graduate School of Management, Davis, CA, 95616,
Keywords:	social indicators ; QOL index ; Quality of Life ; index of agreement ; political agreement
Abstract:	We consider how to construct a social well-being or Quality-of-Life (QOL) index that summarizes many social indicators. We specify a model for measuring the extent to which individuals with differing importance weights for the component indicators agree on a summary QOL index, and derive conditions under which an index will be endorsed by a majority of a social group. We show that, in every case, intuition greatly underestimates the extent of agreement among individuals. Two types of QOL indices are distinguished: (1) those rating multiple social units (e.g., cities, states, countries) in the same time period (cross-sectional data) and (2) those rating a single social unit on multiple time periods (time-series data). Conditions for agreement are derived for each case. We show the equal-weighting strategy is privileged in that it minimizes disagreement among all possible individuals' weights. Finally, we examine nationally representative surveys of importance weights and show that they meet the conditions for successful construction of a QOL index to be endorsed by a majority of individuals in a country.

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