Monte Carlo exact methods used for analysing interethnic unions in Great Britain

The value of using exact rather than asymptotic tests to measure intermarriage in the United Kingdom is examined. "We develop Markov chain Monte Carlo methods for estimating the exact conditional p-value and the exact distribution of the residuals, for quasi-independence and quasi-symmetry. These methods are used to analyse a sparse 10 x 10 symmetric table of interethnic unions, extracted from the 1% household sample of anonymized records from the 1991 U.K. census. With the exception of Pakistani/White and Other Asian/White unions, there is no evidence against quasi-symmetry. We conclude that, with these exceptions, there are no gender differences in the affinities between ethnic groups."