IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/popdev/v29y2003i3p459-469.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Some Thoughts on Causation as It Relates to Demography and Population Studies

Author

Listed:
  • Herbert L. Smith

Abstract

The counterfactual account of causality defines an effect as the difference, for some unit, between an outcome under an observed treatment and an outcome under a hypothetical alternative. When units are heterogeneous in a population, there is no single causal effect. The micro‐level account of causation is complicated when units interact with one another, as they do in human populations. The search for causation requires manipulation. But key micro‐level demographic variables—age, race, sex—are not easily manipulated. What are subject to manipulation are the social rules, policies, or choice sets available to individuals within populations. Thus causes are best conceptualized at the macro level, even if their effects are observed at the micro level.

Suggested Citation

  • Herbert L. Smith, 2003. "Some Thoughts on Causation as It Relates to Demography and Population Studies," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 29(3), pages 459-469, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:popdev:v:29:y:2003:i:3:p:459-469
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2003.00459.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2003.00459.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2003.00459.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Herbert L. Smith, 2014. "Effects of Causes and Causes of Effects," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 43(3), pages 406-415, August.
    2. Marynia Kolak & Luc Anselin, 2020. "A Spatial Perspective on the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 43(1-2), pages 128-153, January.
    3. Guillaume Wunsch, 2007. "Confounding and control," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 16(4), pages 97-120.
    4. Husain, Muhammad Jami, 2010. "Contribution of health to economic development: A survey and overview," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 4, pages 1-52.
    5. Herbert L. Smith, 2008. "Advances in Age–Period–Cohort Analysis," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 36(3), pages 287-296, February.
    6. Robert Moffitt, 2005. "Remarks on the analysis of causal relationships in population research," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 42(1), pages 91-108, February.
    7. Martin Kreidl & Zuzana Žilinčíková, 2023. "Adult children’s union type and contact with mothers: A replication," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 48(23), pages 641-680.
    8. Herbert L. Smith, 2005. "Introducing New Contraceptives in Rural China: A Field Experiment," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 599(1), pages 246-271, May.
    9. Husain, Muhammad Jami, 2009. "Contribution of health to economic development: a survey and overview," Economics Discussion Papers 2009-40, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:popdev:v:29:y:2003:i:3:p:459-469. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0098-7921 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.