This item is only available for download by members of the University of Illinois community. Students, faculty, and staff at the U of I may log in with your NetID and password to view the item. If you are trying to access an Illinois-restricted dissertation or thesis, you can request a copy through your library's Inter-Library Loan office or purchase a copy directly from ProQuest.
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/70985
Description
Title
A Demographic Approach to Social Accounting
Author(s)
Mcmillen, Marilyn M.
Issue Date
1981
Department of Study
Sociology
Discipline
Sociology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Sociology, Demography
Abstract
There is no universally accepted organizing framework for social data in the United States. In fact, the fundamental single-year-of-age-, race-, and sex-specific population and vital event data are not published in a form that allows them to be organized into a consistent framework. This thesis applies accounting techniques based on the equal debits and credits principles of double-entry bookkeeping to available vital event data for births and deaths and unpublished population and net migration data from the Census Bureau. The end result is a demographic accounting system of single-year-of-age-, race-, and sex-specific data for the United States resident population for the years 1962 to 1977.
The completed accounts allow for a comparison of population inflows and outflows that provide a check on the consistency of available data. They also provide a framework for a more detailed system of demographic accounts based on alternative population definitions, as well as social accounts that can be constructed by disaggregating the population from year to year by specific social states.
As a background for the development of demographic accounts, a review of the historical development of social indicators as measures of social change and of social accounts as organizing frameworks for social indicators data is presented. The matrix formulations of demographic accounting are grounded in the basic population transformation equation of demographic accounting. This equation yields a set of linear equations that connect the population inflows with the population outflows and with the births, deaths, and net immigrants. Insofar as methodologies of demographic accounting are firmly based in both mathematical demography and Leontief input-output models of economics, the development of matrix algebra formulations of demographic accounting is reviewed in the context of the interrelationships of these two methodologies.
The actual construction of the demographic accounting system is preceded by a careful review of the choices that were made in selecting and defining the data components to be used. The demographic accounting system is presented with examples and applications for using the system. The error of closure component that was introduced in order to balance the inflows and outflows is carefully analyzed. In general, the part of the error terms that are not readily understandable (e.g., military movements), are within the noise levels dictated by rounding of data components in the system. By way of example, voting behavior data from the Current Population Survey are used in conjunction with the demographic accounts to produce a social state disaggregated account of voter participation in presidential elections from 1964 to 1976. These data are used to illustrate both cross-sectional and longitudinal interpretations of a social accounting system.
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
