The Significance of Aggregate Dependent Variables and Contextual Independent Variables for Linking Macro and Micro Theories

Abstract

Group-level properties have played a significant role in social science theory and research. Since the 1970s, however, they have been criticized for explaining only an insignificant proportion of the variance of a variety of variables, such as suicide and academic achievement. We believe that the ensuing methodological debate, although certainly important, has obscured some important theoretical questions. In this paper we examine the usefulness of aggregate dependent variables, whose ratio of between-unit to within-unit variance may be small, in testing macro theory and in linking micro and macro theories; and we examine the usefulness of contextual independent variables in testing micro theory and in linking micro and macro theories.