Nah, not a dumb question at all! "Proxied by" is basically a placeholder term.
Think of it like a stunt double in movies—Y isn’t *actually* X, but it’s doing X’s job for the sake of the analysis.
Sometimes it’s used in stats or econ when the real variable is too hard to measure. Like using "years of education" to proxy for "skill level."
Think of it like a stunt double in movies—Y isn’t *actually* X, but it’s doing X’s job for the sake of the analysis.
Sometimes it’s used in stats or econ when the real variable is too hard to measure. Like using "years of education" to proxy for "skill level."