IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v10y2023i1d10.1057_s41599-023-01704-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What can mathematical modelling contribute to a sociology of quantification?

Author

Listed:
  • Andrea Saltelli

    (UPF Barcelona School of Management
    University of Bergen)

  • Arnald Puy

    (School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham)

Abstract

Sociology of quantification has spent relatively less energies investigating mathematical modelling than it has on other forms of quantification such as statistics, metrics, or algorithms based on artificial intelligence. Here we investigate whether concepts and approaches from mathematical modelling can provide sociology of quantification with nuanced tools to ensure the methodological soundness, normative adequacy and fairness of numbers. We suggest that methodological adequacy can be upheld by techniques in the field of sensitivity analysis, while normative adequacy and fairness are targeted by the different dimensions of sensitivity auditing. We also investigate in which ways modelling can inform other instances of quantification as to promote political agency.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrea Saltelli & Arnald Puy, 2023. "What can mathematical modelling contribute to a sociology of quantification?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-01704-z
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-01704-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-023-01704-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-023-01704-z?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paolo Paruolo & Michaela Saisana & Andrea Saltelli, 2013. "Ratings and rankings: voodoo or science?," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 176(3), pages 609-634, June.
    2. Marta Kuc-Czarnecka & Samuele Lo Piano & Andrea Saltelli, 2020. "Quantitative Storytelling in the Making of a Composite Indicator," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 775-802, June.
    3. Naomi Oreskes, 2018. "Beware: transparency rule is a Trojan Horse," Nature, Nature, vol. 557(7706), pages 469-469, May.
    4. Funtowicz, Silvio O. & Ravetz, Jerome R., 1994. "The worth of a songbird: ecological economics as a post-normal science," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 197-207, August.
    5. Andrea Saltelli, 2019. "A short comment on statistical versus mathematical modelling," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-3, December.
    6. David J. Hand, 1994. "Deconstructing Statistical Questions," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 157(3), pages 317-338, May.
    7. Paul Pfleiderer, 2020. "Chameleons: The Misuse of Theoretical Models in Finance and Economics," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 87(345), pages 81-107, January.
    8. John P. A. Ioannidis & T. D. Stanley & Hristos Doucouliagos, 2017. "The Power of Bias in Economics Research," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(605), pages 236-265, October.
    9. Sibel Eker & Elena Rovenskaya & Michael Obersteiner & Simon Langan, 2018. "Practice and perspectives in the validation of resource management models," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, December.
    10. M. Saisana & A. Saltelli & S. Tarantola, 2005. "Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis techniques as tools for the quality assessment of composite indicators," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 168(2), pages 307-323, March.
    11. Leamer, Edward E, 1985. "Sensitivity Analyses Would Help," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 308-313, June.
    12. Jeffrey T. Leek & Roger D. Peng, 2015. "Statistics: P values are just the tip of the iceberg," Nature, Nature, vol. 520(7549), pages 612-612, April.
    13. Edward E. Leamer, 2010. "Tantalus on the Road to Asymptopia," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 31-46, Spring.
    14. Andrea Saltelli, 2002. "Sensitivity Analysis for Importance Assessment," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(3), pages 579-590, June.
    15. Jeff Leek & Blakeley B. McShane & Andrew Gelman & David Colquhoun & Michèle B. Nuijten & Steven N. Goodman, 2017. "Five ways to fix statistics," Nature, Nature, vol. 551(7682), pages 557-559, November.
    16. Valentin Amrhein & Sander Greenland & Blake McShane, 2019. "Scientists rise up against statistical significance," Nature, Nature, vol. 567(7748), pages 305-307, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cantone, Giulio Giacomo & Tomaselli, Venera, 2024. "On the Coherence of Composite Indexes: Multiversal Model and Specification Analysis for an Index of Well-Being," MetaArXiv d5y26, Center for Open Science.
    2. Marta Kuc-Czarnecka & Samuele Lo Piano & Andrea Saltelli, 2020. "Quantitative Storytelling in the Making of a Composite Indicator," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 775-802, June.
    3. Carlo Drago, 2021. "The Analysis and the Measurement of Poverty: An Interval-Based Composite Indicator Approach," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-17, October.
    4. Matheus Pereira Libório & Lívia Maria Leite Silva & Petr Iakovlevitch Ekel & Letícia Ribeiro Figueiredo & Patrícia Bernardes, 2022. "Consensus-Based Sub-Indicator Weighting Approach: Constructing Composite Indicators Compatible with Expert Opinion," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(3), pages 1073-1099, December.
    5. Guillaume Coqueret, 2023. "Forking paths in financial economics," Papers 2401.08606, arXiv.org.
    6. Greco, Salvatore & Ishizaka, Alessio & Tasiou, Menelaos & Torrisi, Gianpiero, 2018. "σ-µ efficiency analysis: A new methodology for evaluating units through composite indices," MPRA Paper 83569, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Siddharth Sareen & Andrea Saltelli & Kjetil Rommetveit, 2020. "Ethics of quantification: illumination, obfuscation and performative legitimation," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 1-5, December.
    8. Drago, Carlo & Gatto, Andrea, 2022. "Policy, regulation effectiveness, and sustainability in the energy sector: A worldwide interval-based composite indicator," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    9. Rachel M. Gisselquist, 2013. "Evaluating Governance Indexes: Critical and Less Critical Questions," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-068, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Viet Duong Nguyen & Chiara Gigliarano, 2024. "Weight optimization for composite indicators based on variable importance: an application to measuring well-being in European Regions," RIEDS - Rivista Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica - The Italian Journal of Economic, Demographic and Statistical Studies, SIEDS Societa' Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, vol. 78(1), pages 113-128, January-M.
    11. Gisselquist, Rachel M., 2013. "Evaluating Governance Indexes: Critical and Less Critical Questions," WIDER Working Paper Series 068, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Salvatore Greco & Alessio Ishizaka & Menelaos Tasiou & Gianpiero Torrisi, 2019. "On the Methodological Framework of Composite Indices: A Review of the Issues of Weighting, Aggregation, and Robustness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(1), pages 61-94, January.
    13. Greco, Salvatore & Ishizaka, Alessio & Tasiou, Menelaos & Torrisi, Gianpiero, 2019. "Sigma-Mu efficiency analysis: A methodology for evaluating units through composite indicators," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 278(3), pages 942-960.
    14. Emanuele Borgonovo & William Castaings & Stefano Tarantola, 2011. "Moment Independent Importance Measures: New Results and Analytical Test Cases," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 404-428, March.
    15. Giuseppe Coco & Raffaele Lagravinese & Giuliano Resce, 2020. "Beyond the weights: a multicriteria approach to evaluate inequality in education," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 18(4), pages 469-489, December.
    16. Asatryan, Zareh & Havlik, Annika & Heinemann, Friedrich & Nover, Justus, 2020. "Biases in fiscal multiplier estimates," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    17. Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska, 2016. "Spatial Variation in EU Poverty with Respect to Health, Education and Living Standards," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(2), pages 451-479, January.
    18. Duo Qin & Sophie van Huellen & Qing Chao Wang & Thanos Moraitis, 2022. "Algorithmic Modelling of Financial Conditions for Macro Predictive Purposes: Pilot Application to USA Data," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-22, April.
    19. Anna Matysiak & Dorota Węziak-Białowolska, 2016. "Country-Specific Conditions for Work and Family Reconciliation: An Attempt at Quantification," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 32(4), pages 475-510, October.
    20. Jordi Pons-Novell & Montserrat Guillen, 2022. "The Autonomous Capacity of the Elderly Population in Spain for Shopping and Preparing Meals," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-16, November.

    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:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-01704-z. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    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.