Practice question · Put in order
Arrange the steps of reading a mobility table properly, in order.
- Compute the percentage of each origin group arriving at each destination
- Compare those percentages across origins to see whether chances differ
- Form the odds of one destination against another within each origin
- Identify which dimension holds origins and which holds destinations
- Divide one set of odds by the other to obtain a measure independent of the destination structure
Hints
- The sequence moves from counts, to rates, to a comparison of rates, to odds.
- The final step is what removes the effect of a changing occupational structure.
Show the answer
- Identify which dimension holds origins and which holds destinations
- Compute the percentage of each origin group arriving at each destination
- Compare those percentages across origins to see whether chances differ
- Form the odds of one destination against another within each origin
- Divide one set of odds by the other to obtain a measure independent of the destination structure
Why
Each step strips out one source of confusion. Percentages remove the effect of unequal origin group sizes; comparing across origins reveals the differences in chances; odds remove the effect of how many positions of each kind exist. Stopping at step two is what produces most of the confident nonsense written about mobility.
Practise Class, Mobility and Its Myths
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