Page 82 - The Importance of Common Metrics for Advacing Social Science Theory and Research

The Importance of Common Metrics for Advancing Social Science Theory and Research: A Workshop Summary
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/13034.html

70 THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMON METRICS

munity, and having a national mobility accounting framework would be
the impetus to go beyond good enough to a gold standard.
Turning to poverty measures, Michael vehemently disagreed with the
notion that there is no compelling reason to adopt a better poverty measure.
He believes the standard currently in use in the United States is embarrass-
ing and illogical, and there clearly are many intellectually superior alter-
natives. In his view, the obstacle is not inertia but politics. He expressed
frustration that Measuring Poverty, the work of NRC from 15 years ago,
has not realized much traction.
In survey data activities, Michael supported the idea of linking to ad-
ministrative records, since this could reduce costs by reducing survey time
and increase the size of the samples.
Revisiting the distinction between standardization and harmoniza-
tion, Michael viewed standardization as top-down and harmonization as
bottom-up. In his view, people will adopt measures that work well for their
purposes, and he favored reliance on competition in the marketplace of
ideas. He emphasized that science is all about standardizations established
among scientists, not imposed on them. He therefore did not see that the
benefits of imposed standardization outweigh the costs—quite the contrary.

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