Stochastic Modelling of Social Processes

Book excerpt: Stochastic Modelling of Social Processes provides information pertinent to the development in the field of stochastic modeling and its applications in the social sciences. This book demonstrates that stochastic models can fulfill the goals of explanation and prediction. Organized into nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of stochastic models that fulfill normative, predictive, and structural–analytic roles with the aid of the theory of probability. This text then examines the study of labor market structures using analysis of job and career mobility, which is one of the approaches taken by sociologists in research on the labor market. Other chapters consider the characteristic trends and patterns from data on divorces. This book discusses as well the two approaches of stochastic modeling of social processes, namely competing risk models and semi-Markov processes. The final chapter deals with the practical application of regression models of survival data. This book is a valuable resource for social scientists and statisticians.