Symmetric decomposition of a stratified mean difference

ID: symmetric-decomposition-of-a-stratified-mean-difference

Suppose group has stratum weights summing to one and conditional means . Write and . The crude difference has the displayed decomposition. Expanding the two products in each stratum cancels the cross terms and leaves , proving the identity. The first term uses common average-group weights; the second records a composition difference. Neither term alone identifies a causal pathway.

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