At 02:25 PM 3/12/01 +0000, Radford Neal wrote:
>In this context, all that matters is that there is a difference. As
>explained in many previous posts by myself and others, it is NOT
>appropriate in this context to do a significance test, and ignore the
>difference if you can't reject the null hypothesis of no difference in
>the populations from which these people were drawn (whatever one might
>think those populations are).
the problem with your argument is this ...
now, whether or not formal inferential statistical procedures are called
for ... if there is a difference in salary ... and differences in any OTHER
factor or factors ... one is in the realm of SPECULATION as to what may or
may not be the "reason" or "reasons" for THAT difference
in other words ... any way you say that the difference "may be explained
by" .... is a hypothesis you have formulated ...
so, in this general context ... it still is a statistical issue ... that
being, what (may) causes what ... and, this calls for some model
specification ... that links difference in salaries TO differences in other
factors/variables
if we do not view it as some kind of a statistical model ... then we are in
no position to really talk about this case ... not in any causal or quasi
causal way ... and, i thought that was the main purpose of this entire
matter ... what LEAD to the gap in salaries?? ... was it something based on
merit? or something based on bias?
i don't see how else we could check up on these kinds of issues other than
some statistical questions being asked ... then tested in SOME fashion
(though i am not specifying exactly how)
> Radford Neal
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Radford M. Neal [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Dept. of Statistics and Dept. of Computer Science [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>University of Toronto http://www.cs.utoronto.ca/~radford
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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_________________________________________________________
dennis roberts, educational psychology, penn state university
208 cedar, AC 8148632401, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://roberts.ed.psu.edu/users/droberts/drober~1.htm
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