Intersectionality and Hybrid-Effects Models: Impacts of Immigration on Within- and Between-City Wages

• In Event: 3432 - Intersectional Methodologies

Abstract

Theory of intersectionality has contributed greatly to the study of intersecting social inequalities, yet its application to quantitative methods is still quite limited. Use of multilevel models has advanced this approach by analyzing contextual factors in association with individual-level sources of inequality, yet the conventional approach tends to treat social constructions, such as race, class or gender, as fixed concepts that do not vary between socially meaningful clusters, such as organizations or cities. This methodological restriction limits our ability to interrogate intersectional relations and analytical categories. In order to overcome this shortcoming, this paper shows how simultaneous estimation of within-cluster effect and between-cluster variations in covariates using hybrid-effects models extends the theory of intersectionality and its application on quantitative analysis of social inequality. Using the Census data for the 100 largest cities between 1980 and 2007, my analyses deconstruct analytical categories and capture group-based disadvantage that is fixed across cities (intercategorical), as well as the effects of social groups that vary between cities (ecological). By using within- and between-city interaction terms, my models show how baseline within- and between-city effects of race, education and gender could be narrowed or widened through changes in city-level share of immigrants.

Author

• Eiko Strader, The George Washington University