Many years ago, during one of my bird identification and behavior classes, the instructor described how baby owls sometimes push a sibling out of the nest to gain a larger share of the food provided by the parents. Obviously disturbed by this practice of siblicide by the otherwise adorable owlets, a classmate asked, “Don’t we have the technology to solve that problem?” It would seem so. But, as far as I know, baby owls still push brothers and sisters out of the nest. What does owl behavior have to do with demography or the scholarly exchange that follows? Let me explain.
Although not as heart-wrenching as owl siblicide, problems such as selection bias, endogeneity, and unobserved heterogeneity beset demographic researchers. We have developed a versatile set of tools for confronting these problems: selection correction modeling, instrumental variables analysis, and fixed-effects analysis. Although not perfect, these tools are now frequently used...
