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This book is an accessible introduction to quantitative data analysis, concentrating on the key issues facing those new to research, such as how to decide which statistical procedure is suitable, and how to interpret the subsequent results. Each chapter includes illustrative examples and a set of exercises that allows readers to test their understanding of the topic. The book, written for graduate students in the social sciences, public health, and education, offers a practical approach to making sociological sense out of a body of quantitative data. The book also will be useful to more experienced researchers who need a readily accessible handbook on quantitative methods.The author has posted stata files, updates and data sets at his website http://tinyurl.com/Treiman-stata-files-data-sets. Donald J. Treiman, PhD, is Distinguished Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles. He was also, until recently, director of the California Center for Population Research.

This paper reviews the current state of knowledge about the effects of industrialization upon systems of social stratification. Taking societies as the unit of observation, we consider the relationships between level of industrialization and (1) the distribution of status characteristics in the population (the structure of stratification); (2) the pattern of interrelations among status characteristics (the process of stratification); and (3) the form of linkages between status characteristics and other aspects of social behavior (the consequences of stratification). A set of propositions is specified, a few of which are empirically well established but most of which yet require empirical testing.

The Chinese household registration system (hukou) may be the most important determinant of differential privilege in state socialist China. Urban registrants are entitled to the best jobs, education, housing, and health care -- all of which are unavailable to those with rural registration. Thus, transforming one's hukou status from rural to urban is a central aspect of upward mobility. But given that hukou status is essentially ascribed at birth, how do rural hukou holders affect this change to urban status? Using data from a 1996 national probability sample, we found that education, communist party membership, and military service are the main determinants of rural-to-urban status changes.