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Gross-flow transition matrix between two panel waves

Source: R/transitions.R
transition_matrix.Rd

Weighted cross-tabulation of a categorical state at an earlier wave (from) against a later wave (to) – e.g. the labour-force status of the same people across two periods – computed on the longitudinal weight. This is the gross flow (CEPAL ch. XVII): who moved between which states. boot_transition() adds a per-cell standard error from the ordinary bootstrap.

Usage

transition_matrix(
  data,
  from,
  to,
  weights = NULL,
  states = NULL,
  format = c("row", "col", "joint", "counts")
)

Arguments

data

a data.frame (wide longitudinal file) or a prepped weighting_spec.

from, to

names of the earlier- and later-wave state columns.

weights

a weight column name or a numeric vector; defaults to 1 (or the prepped weight when data is a prepped spec).

states

optional character vector fixing the state levels and their order.

format

"row" (default, P(to|from)), "col" (P(from|to)), "joint" (P(from,to)) or "counts" (weighted counts).

Value

a weightflow_transition object holding the matrix.

Why there is a single weight, and not two

Feinberg and Stasny (1983) describe a gross-change table built from the two cross-sectional weights: when \(w_{k,t-1} \neq w_{k,t}\), the smaller weight goes to the (i, j) cell and the difference goes to an "out of population" cell – (Outside, j) or (i, Outside) depending on the sign – on the assumption that the weights differ only because of natural entries to and exits from the target population. ECLAC cites it (ch. XVI, sec. B) as the state of things before a longitudinal weight is built.

This function takes one weight because the package builds that longitudinal weight instead, by the sequence the same chapter prescribes: panel base weight, adjustment for nonresponse in the first period, an explicit definition of the longitudinal population, the attrition adjustment and the final calibration. Once that weight exists the discrepancy Feinberg-Stasny reconstructs no longer arises – who left the population was decided explicitly at step_drop_ineligible() rather than inferred from a difference between two weights. The two-weight construction is the alternative to the longitudinal weight, not a complement to it.

See also

boot_transition()