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Clarity on weighting functionality in ei_good
, ei_iter
, ei_rxc
#129
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Interpret everything I say below with the caveat that I haven't found the code for Cohen, Duchin, Matthews, and Suwal so I might be way off-base. Note the following passage from the paper:
My interpretation of this passage is that the authors are not primarily using iterative EI, RXC, or even Goodman regression (which iteratively applies the formula We will try to confirm how/whether the three EI methods incorporate turnout and add this to the documentation. We could also add a function for running what the authors call 'ecological regression' if that's useful, although the underlying models are quite straightforward to run without such a function. Does this make sense, @bfifield? |
That all makes sense - thanks, @aridf. That's also helpful for double-checking my own understanding. Agreed that the Cohen et al models are extremely simple to run and don't need a separate interface from your team. I think just a note on how the three main methods weigh the precincts in an analysis (whether by turnout or whatever population denominator the user is inputting), or if they're weighted at all, would be most helpful here. And thanks very much for developing a great suite of tools. |
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Cohen, Duchin, Matthews, and Suwal (https://mggg.org/uploads/DP.pdf) analyze the effects of the Census DAS policy for voting rights analyses and litigation. Their suggestion is that any bias induced by DAS can be alleviated by either trimming very small precincts from any voting rights analysis, or by weighting precincts by total turnout in any ecological regression or EI analysis. However, it is difficult to figure out whether any weighting functionality is supported, or if it happens automatically using the
totals
argument, in any of the main estimation functions ineiCompare
.Describe the solution you'd like
Either documentation discussing how precincts are weighted by default in each of these three estimation functions, or an additional
weights
argument where users can weight by the population total of their choice.Describe alternatives you've considered
Dropping small precincts is an alternative that I can immediately implement, but weighting would be a really welcome feature and also fits with their primary recommendation.
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