Pairwise comparisons as a scale development tool for composite measures

Composite scales are widely used for measuring aggregate social science concepts. These often consist of linear indices obtained as the weighted sum of a set of relevant indicators. However, selecting coefficients (or weights) that reflect the substantive importance of each indicator towards the con...

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Vydáno v:Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A, Statistics in society Ročník 185; číslo 2; s. 519 - 542
Hlavní autoři: Floridi, Ginevra, Lauderdale, Benjamin E.
Médium: Journal Article
Jazyk:angličtina
Vydáno: Oxford Oxford University Press 01.04.2022
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ISSN:0964-1998, 1467-985X
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Shrnutí:Composite scales are widely used for measuring aggregate social science concepts. These often consist of linear indices obtained as the weighted sum of a set of relevant indicators. However, selecting coefficients (or weights) that reflect the substantive importance of each indicator towards the concept of interest is a difficult task. We propose a method for the generation of linear indices for aggregate concepts based on pairwise comparisons. Specifically, we ask a group of subject‐matter experts to perform a series of pairwise comparisons, with respect to the concept of interest, between profiles displaying different combinations of indicators. This allows us to estimate coefficients for each indicator that provide a linear approximation to how experts make the pairwise evaluations. As we show, the method makes it straightforward to assess intercoder reliability, while being a more accessible task than directly asking experts for coefficients. We demonstrate our method with an application to the concept of ‘productive ageing’, including a cross‐cultural comparison of weighting schemes derived from a group of Italian and a group of South Korean experts on this concept.
Bibliografie:Funding information
Economic and Social Research Council, 1+3 PhD Scholarship
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content type line 14
ISSN:0964-1998
1467-985X
DOI:10.1111/rssa.12790