Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

The effects of specific occupations in position generator measures of social capital

Hällsten, Martin ; Edling, Christofer LU orcid and Rydgren, Jens (2015) In Social Networks 40. p.55-63
Abstract
The position generator is a widespread method for measuring latent social capital in which respondents are queried about contacts on a list of occupations predefined by the analyst. We separate out the unique contribution of each occupation to aggregated measures of social capital. It turns out that this contribution varies vastly: knowing a person in some occupations provides substance to measures of social capital, while knowing a person in a few occupations is irrelevant and contributes statistical noise and causes attenuation bias. We discuss the implication of our findings for the design of position generator measures generally.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
social capital, position generator, measurement error, Jack-knife, sociologi, sociology
in
Social Networks
volume
40
pages
55 - 63
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000347585500006
  • scopus:84907480578
ISSN
0378-8733
DOI
10.1016/j.socnet.2014.06.002
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
8a7846cf-22bb-4b15-9a22-0a0598e28e6d (old id 4617221)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 13:53:16
date last changed
2022-02-19 07:52:02
@article{8a7846cf-22bb-4b15-9a22-0a0598e28e6d,
  abstract     = {{The position generator is a widespread method for measuring latent social capital in which respondents are queried about contacts on a list of occupations predefined by the analyst. We separate out the unique contribution of each occupation to aggregated measures of social capital. It turns out that this contribution varies vastly: knowing a person in some occupations provides substance to measures of social capital, while knowing a person in a few occupations is irrelevant and contributes statistical noise and causes attenuation bias. We discuss the implication of our findings for the design of position generator measures generally.}},
  author       = {{Hällsten, Martin and Edling, Christofer and Rydgren, Jens}},
  issn         = {{0378-8733}},
  keywords     = {{social capital; position generator; measurement error; Jack-knife; sociologi; sociology}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{55--63}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Social Networks}},
  title        = {{The effects of specific occupations in position generator measures of social capital}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2014.06.002}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.socnet.2014.06.002}},
  volume       = {{40}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}