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Surveys are an important vehicle for advancing research on urban policy and governance. The introduction of online tools eased survey-based data collection, making it cheaper and easier to obtain data from key informants like local elected officials or public administrators. However, the utility of web-based survey administration may be diminishing. To investigate this dynamic and search for strategies to support survey research in urban studies, we perform a systematic review of survey research in urban policy and administration scholarship and conduct an original survey follow-up experiment. Our findings identify a clear downward trend in survey response rates that was accentuated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from our survey experiment show distinctly different costs per solicitation and per completed survey, depending on administration mode. These findings stimulate discussion on how scholars may continue to use surveys to generate high-quality, empirically rigorous research on urban affairs in light of recent trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being popular makes it easier for dictators to govern. A growing body of scholarship therefore focuses on the factors that influence authoritarian popularity. However, it is possible that the perception of popularity itself affects incumbent approval in autocracies. We use framing experiments embedded in four surveys in Russia to examine this phenomenon. These experiments reveal that manipulating information—and thereby perceptions—about Russian President Vladimir Putin's popularity can significantly affect respondents' support for him. Additional analyses, which rely on a novel combination of framing and list experiments, indicate that these changes in support are not due to preference falsification, but are in fact genuine. This study has implications for research on support for authoritarian leaders and defection cascades in nondemocratic regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media recruitment and online surveys are valuable tools in social science research, but their effectiveness in reaching seldom-heard victims of gender violence in low-middle income (LMI) countries is under-explored. This empirical study aims to: (1) describe violence and abuse experiences and (2) assess the benefits and limitations of using social media to document violence against women and girls (VAWGs) in a LMI country to render visible the experiences of potentially isolated victims. A total of 453 Iranian women (aged 14–59, mean = 28.8, SD = 8.04) responded to an Instagram invitation for a study on women's health and violence exposure from February 2020 to January 2022. The questionnaire covered general gendered abuse, domestic violence (DV), and forced unemployment. The analysis was performed using Stata 17. Nearly all participants reported abuse, including sexual (85.0%), psychological (83.4%), and technology-facilitated (57.4%) abuse, with 77.4% experiencing multiple forms. The street (62%) and home (52.8%) were common abuse locations. The perpetrators included known individuals (75.9%) and strangers (80.8%), with 56.7% reporting abuse by both. DV was reported by 72.6%, mainly involving psychological (73.1%), physical (53.4%), and/or sexual (17.2%) violence, with fathers (47.8%), husbands (42.7%), and brothers (40.2%) as frequent perpetrators. A quarter reported forced unemployment. Those experiencing DV and/or forced unemployment showed higher depression levels, suicidal ideation, and lower marital satisfaction. The study suggests using social media recruitment for VAWG research but cautions against overgeneralising from these data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on mixed devices in web surveys is in its infancy. Using a randomized experiment, we investigated device effects (desktop PC, tablet and mobile phone) for six response formats and four different numbers of scale points. N = 5,077 members of an online access panel participated in the experiment. An exact test of measurement invariance and Composite Reliability were investigated. The results provided full data comparability for devices and formats, with the exception of continuous Visual Analog Scale (VAS), but limited comparability for different numbers of scale points. There were device effects on reliability when looking at the interactions with formats and number of scale points. VAS, use of mobile phones and five point scales consistently gained lower reliability. We suggest technically less demanding implementations as well as a unified design for mixed-device surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research reveals that the visual design of open-ended questions should match the response task so that respondents can infer the expected response format. Based on a web survey including specific probes in a list-style open-ended question format, we experimentally tested the effects of varying numbers of answer boxes on several indicators of response quality. Our results showed that using multiple small answer boxes instead of one large box had a positive impact on the number and variety of themes mentioned, as well as on the conciseness of responses to specific probes. We found no effect on the relevance of themes and the risk of item non-response. Based on our findings, we recommend using multiple small answer boxes instead of one large box to convey the expected response format and improve response quality in specific probes. This study makes a valuable contribution to the field of web probing, extends the concept of response quality in list-style open-ended questions, and provides a deeper understanding of how visual design features affect cognitive response processes in web surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family income questions in general purpose surveys are usually collected with either a single-question summary design or a multiple-question disaggregation design. It is unclear how estimates from the two approaches agree with each other. The current paper takes advantage of a large-scale survey that has collected family income with both methods. With data from 14,222 urban and rural families in the 2018 wave of the nationally representative China Family Panel Studies, we compare the two estimates, and further evaluate factors that might contribute to the discrepancy. We find that the two estimates are loosely matched in only a third of all families, and most of the matched families have a simple income structure. Although the mean of the multiple-question estimate is larger than that of the single-question estimate, the pattern is not monotonic. At lower percentiles up till the median, the single-question estimate is larger, whereas the multiple-question estimate is larger at higher percentiles. Larger family sizes and more income sources contribute to higher likelihood of inconsistent estimates from the two designs. Families with wage income as the main income source have the highest likelihood of giving consistent estimates compared with all other families. In contrast, families with agricultural income or property income as the main source tend to have very high probability of larger single-question estimates. Omission of certain income components and rounding can explain over half of the inconsistencies with higher multiple-question estimates and a quarter of the inconsistencies with higher single-question estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper endeavours to investigate whether a complex tax system influences firms' propensity toward tax evasion across countries. To achieve the objectives of this study, we utilised the World Bank Enterprise Survey and the World Bank's Doing Business databases covering more than 46,000 companies from 83 countries. Our study revealed that the increased time required to pay taxes and higher total tax payments were associated with a greater extent and incidence of tax evasion among firms. The consistency of these benchmark regression results was proven through endogeneity analysis and several robustness tests. Furthermore, our heterogeneity analyses showed that the effect of tax complexity on firm tax evasion was more prominent in low- and lower-middle-income countries and also in the primary industry. These findings offer promising evidence for policymakers, particularly in low- and lower-middle-income countries where the majority of companies operate in the primary industry. Addressing the complexity of the tax system could potentially mitigate the adverse impact on tax evasion levels in these countries. Furthermore, our spatial analysis provides valuable insights, emphasising the potential impact of tax complexity in neighbouring countries and underscoring the necessity for policymakers in the home countries to strategise on harmonising and streamlining their tax systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategic Networks (SNs) have emerged as a prevalent organizational form that offers synergistic benefits to participating firms. Despite their potential, SNs often experience member firms' departure, raising concerns about their long-term viability. This study explores the factors that influence firms' decisions to exit SNs by examining the interplay between network maturity, member firms' satisfaction, and their individual characteristics. Using data from 338 Brazilian firms involved in SNs, a cluster analysis was employed to identify distinct groups of firms based on shared attributes. The findings revealed a significant association between higher perceived maturity, greater satisfaction with SNs, and lower likelihood of departure. These results suggest that network leaders should prioritize cultivating a mature and satisfying SN environment to mitigate member exits. By identifying the critical distinctions between the remaining and departing firms, this study provides valuable insights for network managers seeking to strengthen the longevity and stability of their strategic partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Executive Summary: This study explores the relationship between "sanctuary policies" that bar local law enforcement agencies from cooperating with federal immigration authorities and immigrant attitudes toward law enforcement agencies. It draws upon original survey data collected in New Mexico in 2019 and finds: • First, that immigrants who believe they are protected by sanctuary have more trust in their police and sheriffs than immigrants who anticipate collaboration between local law enforcement and immigration authorities; • Second, that awareness of sanctuary policies is nonetheless the exception to the rule, particularly among immigrant men. The study therefore highlights not only the limits to sanctuary policies sensu stricto but the limited scope and gendered nature of legal consciousness among immigrants in a multilayered enforcement regime. Our findings suggest that promoting sanctuary policies to immigrant communities, particularly through immigrant-serving agencies, may be nearly as critical in improved immigrant-police relations, as adopting sanctuary policies. The Department of Homeland Security and the courts should therefore adopt a uniform definition of sanctuary and disseminate it to state and local officials — especially in law enforcement — throughout the country. Furthermore, localities that adopt sanctuary policies should publicize them as widely as possible so that they have the desired effect in immigrant communities and facilitate the improvement of police-community relations in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Place management is central to Routine Activities Theory and proactive utilization of place managers is one of 25 Situational Crime Prevention techniques. Yet little is known about the effectiveness of using place managers to prevent cybercrimes. This paper uses a vignette experimental survey of 213 cybersecurity professionals to explore their perceptions of cybercrime prevention. We find that organizations that partner with and proactively utilize cybersecurity professionals as place managers are perceived as more effective in controlling cybercrimes than those organizations that do not specifically assign professionals to proactively prevent and control cybercrimes. We conclude that assigned cyberplace managers are more likely to use their cyber skills and knowledge than those who lack the time and space to utilize their cyber expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdsourcing has emerged as a preferred data collection methodology for advertising and social science researchers because these samples avoid the higher costs associated with professional panel data. Yet, there are ongoing concerns about data quality for online sources. This research examines differences in data quality for an advertising experiment across five popular online data sources, including professional panels and crowdsourced platforms. Effects of underlying mechanisms impacting data quality, including response satisficing, multitasking, and effort, are examined. As proposed, a serial mediation model shows that data source is, directly and indirectly, related to these antecedents of data quality. Satisficing is positively related to multitasking and negatively related to effort, and both mediators (in parallel) extend to data quality, indicating that the indirect effects on data quality through these mediating variables are significant. In general, a vetted MTurk sample (i.e., CloudResearch Approved) produces higher quality data than the other four sources. Regardless of the data source, researchers should utilize safeguards to ensure data quality. Safeguards and other strategies to obtain high-quality data from online samples are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of pooled data from different repeated survey series to study long-term trends is handicapped by a measurement difficulty: different survey series often use different scales to measure the same attitude and thus generate scale-incomparable data. In this article, the authors propose the latent attitude method (LAM) to address this scale-incomparability problem, on the basis of the assumption that attitudes measured by ordinal categories reflect a latent attitude with cut points. The method extends the latent variable method in the case of a single survey series to the case of multiple survey series and leverages overlapping years for identification. The authors first assess the validity of the method with simulated data. The results show that the method yields accurate estimates of mean attitudes and cut point values. The authors then apply the method to an empirical study of Americans' attitudes toward China from 1974 to 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last years saw the release of several cross-country data sets generated by Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) - websites that "match" a respondent's position on various political attitudes with those of political parties or candidates. As they hold the information of a high number of respondents on a large number of political attitudes, these datasets are promising sources of data for political and social scientists. Yet, as with all cross-country data, we should first establish if they meet the requirements of good data quality and construct equivalence. Using data from the 2019 euandi VAA, I employ Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) to study the behavior of 6 items that form an economic left-right scale. Doing so for 28 countries, I find that not only the quality of the data differs between countries, but the underlying structure as well. This means that for some countries the data is of too low a quality and thus not useful for cross-country analysis. While this does not invalidate VAA data in general, it does limit it. In addition, this paper illustrates the use of MCA as a pre-processing technique for establishing the quality of both VAA data and cross-country data in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a crucial method in organizational and social behavior research, self-report surveys must manage method bias. Method biases are distorted scores in survey response, distorted variance in variables, and distorted relational estimates between variables caused by method designs. Studies on method bias have focused on post hoc statistical control, but integrated analyses of the sociopsychological mechanism of method bias are lacking. This review proposes a framework for method bias and offers a relatively complete and detailed review of the sociopsychological and statistical mechanisms of four main types of method bias and their procedural remedies. This review proposes "reduce, remove, and rectify" as a guideline for researchers in survey design to address method bias. Finally, this review presents two directions for future methodology research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indirect questioning techniques such as the randomized response technique aim to control social desirability bias in surveys of sensitive topics. To improve upon previous indirect questioning techniques, we propose the new Cheating Detection Triangular Model. Similar to the Cheating Detection Model, it includes a mechanism for detecting instruction non-adherence, and similar to the Triangular Model, it uses simplified instructions to improve respondents' understanding of the procedure. Based on a comparison with the known prevalence of a sensitive attribute serving as external criterion, we report the first individual-level validation of the Cheating Detection Model, the Triangular Model and the Cheating Detection Triangular Model. Moreover, the sensitivity and specificity of all models was assessed, as well as the respondents' subjective evaluation of all questioning technique formats. Based on our results, the Cheating Detection Triangular Model appears to be the best choice among the investigated indirect questioning techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Randomized response techniques (RRTs) are applied to reduce response biases in self-report surveys on sensitive research questions (e.g., on socially undesirable characteristics). However, there is evidence that they cannot completely eliminate self-protecting response strategies. To address this problem, there are RRTs specifically designed to measure the extent of such strategies. Here we assessed the recently devised unrelated question model—cheating extension (UQMC) in a preregistered online survey on intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization and perpetration during the first contact restrictions as containment measures for the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in Germany in early 2020. The UQMC accounting for self-protecting responses described the data better than its predecessor model which assumes instruction adherence. The resulting three-month prevalence estimates were about 10% and we found a high proportion of self-protecting responses in the group of female participants queried about IPV victimization. However, unexpected results concerning the differences in prevalence estimates across the groups queried about victimization and perpetration highlight the difficulty of investigating sensitive research questions even using methods that guarantee anonymity and the importance of interpreting the respective estimates with caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of data in surveys is affected by response burden and questionnaire length. With an increasing number of questions, respondents can become bored, tired, and annoyed and may take shortcuts to reduce the effort needed to complete the survey. In this article, direct evidence is presented on how the position of items within a web questionnaire influences respondents' focus of attention. In two experiments, part of an eye-tracking study and an online survey, respectively, a variety of indicators show that data quality is lower if the experimental question is positioned at the end rather than at the beginning of a questionnaire. Practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research highlighted that a fundamental rethink of the measurement of domestic abuse was needed in the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). The research reported here aimed to develop and test new questions on domestic abuse for the CSEW to improve the headline prevalence measure, including frequency of abuse, to develop a way of measuring controlling or coercive behavior within the overall prevalence measure, and to develop a measure of the impact of abuse. The research included focus groups and interviews with victims (n = 27) to assess a set of draft questions and cognitive testing of revised questions with victims and the general public (n = 42). A final set of 24 questions was developed for use with victims of both intimate partner and family abuse, with an additional question for family abuse. The new questions were found to echo victim experiences and were deemed acceptable and reliable measures by victims and the general public for domestic abuse, including controlling and/or coercive behavior and impact. An analytical approach was recommended to improve the headline prevalence measure of domestic abuse by establishing 'high' and 'low' abuse profiles using measures of both behavior and impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rating scales are commonly used to measure constructs that are not directly observable, such as attitudes. The extant research in the literature has extended the general understanding of attitude measurement. Yet the optimal number of scale points remains elusive. The current study aims to discuss this topic in an advertising research context. I conduct a comprehensive review of the literature on the effect of scale points from 1924 to 2021 and summarize empirical evidence as well as major arguments over time. I also perform an analysis of rating scales measuring attitude toward the ad that appeared in the Journal of Advertising from 2011 to 2020 and explore how and why researchers have used some rating scale points. I present the key issues and propose several practical recommendations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizenship is a fundamental boundary in contemporary societies that entails rights, a sense of belonging, and social status. Drawing on longitudinal census data, this article tracks individual changes in self-reported citizenship over 30 years in France. Respondents choose one of three categories: "French by birth," "became French," or "foreigner." The first category should be stable over the life course: one is born, but cannot become, "French by birth." Yet, our findings indicate that about 19 percent of foreign-origin respondents in a given census switch to "French by birth" declarations at the next census, in a process we call reclassification. Immigrant assimilation variables, such as nativity and length of stay, and events such as intermarriage, naturalization, and residential mobility, trigger reclassification. Yet reclassification is also higher among individuals with lower socioeconomic status and respondents of African and Southeast Asian origin, as well as those with origins in former French colonies. These findings suggest reclassification is a byproduct of immigrant assimilation, which triggers feelings of national identity, as well as status upgrading, whereby disadvantaged and discriminated groups change their citizenship declaration to compensate for low social status. Empirically novel, reclassification offers original theoretical insights into the meanings of citizenship, civic stratification, and boundary-crossing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminology has been hampered by a lack of longitudinal data to examine the consequences of victimisation. However, recently, 'Understanding Society', the United Kingdom Household Panel Survey (UKHLS), began fielding a small battery of questions relating to violence experience. Here, we examined the strengths and weaknesses of these UKHLS measures with similar indices from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), a widely used and regarded but cross-sectional survey. We empirically assessed the extent to which the UKHLS variables are comparable with those in the CSEW to determine the viability of the UKHLS for the longitudinal study of (fear of) violence and its consequences. Overall, we regarded the UKHLS to provide an important resource for future panel research on the consequences of victimisation. We found the indicators measuring physical assault to be similar in both sets of data, but also noted differences in prevalence and/or different distributions by socioeconomic group for the indices relating to being threatened and of feeling unsafe. Nonetheless, we maintain their utility for researchers in this field, allowing researchers to uncover new inequalities in violence exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the context effects and gender differences in them on reported life satisfaction and if there are any gender differences in these effects to see whether and how much the particular circumstances of the life satisfaction survey, typically not controlled for, matter. It does so using a questionnaire survey in the city of Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic, and the contextual factors included weather conditions, location, timing, and gender of the survey administrator. Statistical analysis is based on the ordinal logistic regression models. The results show that in some locations the average life satisfaction reported by men was statistically significantly different. As for women, their life satisfaction on average seems to be higher on Tuesdays and lower on Fridays. Also, for women, there is a positive relationship between the afternoon hours of the data collection and life satisfaction. There is no effect when it comes to gender of the questionnaire's administrator. As for weather or temperature, no relation with life satisfaction has been found. The results clearly show that the effects of context conditions vary between men and women. Our results can help design questionnaire surveys focused on subjective well-being in a way that the results are unbiased and relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents authors' insights on the research on the question pretesting and evaluation methods. The authors state that question evaluation methods can be compared on questions with known psychometric properties. The authors tell that the answers to the questions on whether converging conclusions should be expected and how to cope with diverging conclusions on specific items depends on how the researchers conceptualize the purpose of various evaluation method.

Recent shifts in political support to populist parties worldwide have been linked to the changing preferences of "left behind communities." Based on apparently growing "left behind" support for populists, some commentators have argued for policy changes including tightened immigration rules coupled with increasing investment in economically deprived areas, particularly in health care. However, left behind communities' policy preferences are unclear from existing research due to a series of methodological challenges associated with researching polarization and stigmatization. We complement existing research with an innovative photo elicitation methodology covering five field sites in the United Kingdom during 2019, focusing on left behind communities' policy preferences concerning Brexit. Photo elicitation overcomes methodological challenges associated with emotional attachment and stigmatization. Drawing on 418 interviews with 489 participants, we find that interviewees rejected elite framings suggesting a logical link between Brexit and health care investment, instead articulating policy preferences for health care investment drawing on personal experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responsive survey design is a technique aimed at improving the efficiency or quality of surveys by using incoming data from the field to make design changes. The technique was pioneered on large national surveys, but the tools can also be applied on the smaller-scale surveys most commonly used by sociologists. We demonstrate responsive survey design in a small-scale, list-based sample survey of students on the topic of sexual misconduct. We investigate the impact of individual incentive levels and a two-phase responsive design with changes to mode of contact as approaches for limiting the potential of nonresponse bias in data from such surveys. Our analyses demonstrate that a two-phase design introducing telephone and face-to-face reminders to complete the survey can produce stronger change in response rates and characteristics of those who respond than higher incentive levels. These findings offer tools for sociologists designing smaller-scale surveys of special populations or sensitive topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The method of web probing integrates cognitive interviewing techniques into web surveys and is increasingly used to evaluate survey questions. In a usual web probing scenario, probes are administered immediately after the question to be tested (concurrent probing), typically as open-ended questions. A second possibility of administering probes is in a closed format, whereby the response categories for the closed probes are developed during previously conducted qualitative cognitive interviews. Using closed probes has several benefits, such as reduced costs and time efficiency, because this method does not require manual coding of open-ended responses. In this article, we investigate whether the insights gained into item functioning when implementing closed probes are comparable to the insights gained when asking open-ended probes and whether closed probes are equally suitable to capture the cognitive processes for which traditionally open-ended probes are intended. The findings reveal statistically significant differences with regard to the variety of themes, the patterns of interpretation, the number of themes per respondent, and nonresponse. No differences in number of themes across formats by sex and educational level were found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent do partisan media influence political attitudes and behavior? Although recent methodological advancements have improved scholars' ability to identify the persuasiveness of partisan media, past studies typically rely on self-reported measures of media preferences, which may deviate from real-world news consumption. Integrating individual-level web-browsing data with a survey experiment, we contrast survey-based indicators of stated preferences with behavioral measures of revealed preferences based on the relative volume and slant of news individuals consume. Overall, we find that these measurement strategies generate differing conclusions regarding heterogeneity in partisan media's persuasive impact. Whereas our stated preference measure raises the possibility of persuasion by crosscutting sources, our revealed preference measures suggest that, among consumers with more polarized media diets, partisan media exposure results in limited attitude change, with any observed effects driven primarily by politically concordant sources. Together, these findings underscore the importance of careful measurement for research on media persuasion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: The Medicaid program provides health insurance coverage to a diverse set of demographics. We know little about how the policy community describes these populations (e.g., on Medicaid-related websites or in public opinion polls and policy writings) or whether and how these descriptions may affect perceptions of the program, its beneficiaries, and potential policy changes. Methods: To investigate this issue, we developed and fielded a nationally representative survey of 2,680 Americans that included an experiment for priming respondents by highlighting different combinations of target populations of the Medicaid program as found in the Medicaid policy discourse. Findings: Overall, we find that Americans view Medicaid and its beneficiaries rather favorably. However, there are marked differences based on partisanship and racial animosity. Emphasizing citizenship and residency requirements at times improved these perceptions. Conclusions: Racial perceptions and partisanship are important correlates in Americans' views about Medicaid and its beneficiaries. However, perceptions are not immutable. In general, the policy community should shift toward using more comprehensive descriptions of the Medicaid population that go beyond the focus on low income and that include citizenship and residency requirements. Future research should expand this work by studying descriptions in the broader public discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communicative applications of artificial intelligence (AI) have burst into the lives of millions of people through products such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, or Replika, with the ability to generate texts and images and even understand natural language and socialize with humans. This study addresses attitudes toward communicative AI, as well as the sociodemographic and personality factors that are related to its positive perception and usage. For this purpose, we use data from a survey conducted at the end of February 2023 among adult residents in Spain (N = 821). Our results suggest that there is a slight predominance of negative attitudes toward communicative AI, which include cognitive and affective elements such as the perception of dehumanizing aspects and job-related threats, caution, or fear. However, a relevant portion of our respondents is not familiar with communicative AI or generalizes their answers toward other applications of AI. Individuals with higher educational level, greater openness to experience, and lower level of futurephobia show more positive attitudes toward these technologies. In terms of adoption, men, younger people, and those with more favorable attitudes toward AI are more likely to decide to use it, while those scoring higher in agreeableness tend to use it less frequently once they have decided to use it. We discuss these results under the premise that early adopters may play a central role in the attitudes of late majority and laggards, as well as in the future development of communicative AI and its regulatory framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis provides two case studies comparing direct payment versus charitable donations on respondents' behalf as survey participation incentives. The first examines agricultural producers' willingness to participate in several hypothetical surveys. Donation to charity significantly increases producers' willingness to participate relative to direct payment. The second case study examines forest landowners' willingness to participate in an actual, one‐time survey. Neither payment nor donation incentives improve participation among mail respondents and donations are less effective versus payment among online respondents. If they do not decrease participation, then donations may be preferred, requiring less effort to process a smaller number of transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being school-ready when transitioning to the primary school system has been associated with favourable outcomes during schooling and adult life. While children living in socio-economically disadvantaged areas may be at a higher risk of being less school-ready, research in the area has highlighted that not all children experience such a delay. This study examined a range of factors that may account for differences in outcomes across five school readiness domains (physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development, and communications skills and general knowledge) within a sample of children living in socio-economically disadvantaged areas. Drawing on data from a sample of five-year-old children involved in the Preparing for Life (PFL) evaluation in Ireland, this study explored the role of child and early environmental factors in facilitating or hindering children's development across these school readiness domains. Statistical analysis identified child's sex, parental involvement and learning materials at home, parent–child interactions, mother's attempt to breastfeed, and mother–child attachment as significant predictors of school readiness after accounting for other factors. Findings contribute to the Irish and international literature on the role of early demographical and environmental factors in shaping school readiness, especially for children from socio-economically disadvantaged areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a novel approach for measuring inflation expectations, which can alleviate the rounding number problem. Furthermore, we examine how consumers form inflation expectations. We find that consumers heterogeneously update their information sets on prices; 46% of the consumers collect information about the consumer price index at least once a quarter, while the remaining consumers less frequently or never obtain this information. We also find that forecast revisions are sensitive to a change in food prices. More than half of consumers are attentive only to a change in food prices and may form their inflation expectations using food price changes as a signal of fluctuations in the overall inflation rates. The existence of consumers who are inattentive to aggregate inflation casts doubt on the transmission of monetary policy through the management of expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the study of "Takeve", an Italian food delivery platform that employs only women. The research conducted by interviewing both the workers and the founders of this small platform provides an opportunity to re-discuss the business models of food delivery platforms. The aim is to understand how and in what ways it is possible to initiate a participatory and multi-stakeholder model in which opportunities for fair and decent work, business-to-business cooperation, and even dialogue between companies and institutions are created. Although the case presented is circumscribed and very limited in size, it seems to be a good example to reflect on the possibility of rethinking the model of food delivery platforms in a gendered perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societal upheavals often ignite bias against "the other." The early political rhetoric around the COVID-19 pandemic keenly engaged this othering process, even from its early nomenclature as the "Wuhan" and "China" virus. Although media accounts of xenophobic violence against Asian Americans abound, little behavioral evidence exists that identifies the prevalence and scope of anti-Chinese bias during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examine whether and to what extent traces of such othering systematically emerge in Americans' everyday behaviors. Specifically, we analyze a novel dataset focused on Yelp reviews for Chinese and American restaurants in eight large metropolitan areas. Using difference-in-differences estimation, we find that Chinese restaurants received significantly lower ratings compared with American restaurants shortly after the start of the pandemic. The effect is localized to Chinese restaurants, rather than to all Asian restaurants. Our results highlight the emergence of anti-Chinese prejudice in an ostensibly apolitical setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social scientists employ survey methods to explore the contours of human behavior. Today there are more opportunities to collect survey data than at any time in recent history. Yet sample quality varies dramatically due in part to the availability of nonprobability samples (NPSs) from commercial survey organizations. While these kinds of surveys have advantages in terms of cost and accessibility, the proprietary nature of the data can be problematic. In this synthesis, we describe situations in which researchers typically employ NPSs and consider whether these data are fit for purpose. Next, we discuss use cases that are not widespread but may be appropriate for these data. We conclude that potential utility of NPSs will remain out of reach unless scholars confront the tension between the operation of online survey organizations and the goals of transparent research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the role of personality as a component of motivation in promoting or inhibiting the tendency to exhibit the satisficing response styles of midpoint, straightlining, and Don't Know responding. We assess whether respondents who are low on the Conscientiousness and Agreeableness dimensions of the Big Five Personality Inventory are more likely to exhibit these satisficing response styles. We find large effects of these personality dimensions on the propensity to satisfice in both face-to-face and self-administration modes and in probability and nonprobability samples. People who score high on Conscientiousness and Agreeableness were less likely to be in the top decile of straightlining and midpoint distributions. The findings for Don't Know responding were weaker and only significant for Conscientiousness in the nonprobability sample. We also find large effects across all satisficing indicators for a direct measure of cognitive ability, where existing studies have mostly relied on proxy measures of ability such as educational attainment. Sensitivity analysis suggests the personality effects are likely to be causal in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing age of respondents and cognitive impairment are usual suspects for increasing difficulties in survey interviews and a decreasing data quality. This is why survey researchers tend to label residents in retirement and nursing homes as hard-to-interview and exclude them from most social surveys. In this article, I examine to what extent this label is justified and whether quality of data collected among residents in institutions for the elderly really differs from data collected within private households. For this purpose, I analyze the response behavior and quality indicators in three waves of Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. To control for confounding variables, I use propensity score matching to identify respondents in private households who share similar characteristics with institutionalized residents. My results confirm that most indicators of response behavior and data quality are worse in institutions compared to private households. However, when controlling for sociodemographic and health-related variables, differences get very small. These results suggest the importance of health for the data quality irrespective of the housing situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous articles and textbooks advise qualitative researchers on accessing "hard-to-reach" or "hidden" populations. In this article, I compare two studies that I conducted with justice-involved women in the United States: a yearlong ethnography inside a state women's prison and an interview study with formerly incarcerated women. Although these two populations are interconnected—and both are widely deemed hard-to-reach—the barriers to access differed. In the prison study, hard-to-reach reflected an issue of institutional legitimacy, in which researchers must demonstrate themselves and their proposed study as legible, appropriate, and worthy to organizational gatekeepers. In the reentry study, hard-to-reach reflected an issue of structural precarity, in which researchers must navigate the everyday vulnerabilities of research participants' social position to ensure the study is inclusive and feasible. Juxtaposing these two experiences, I propose greater nuance to the term hard-to-reach such that researchers may proactively address institutional and structural barriers to access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: As research increasingly links positive student-teacher relationships (STRs) to positive student outcomes, instruments to measure STRs have proliferated. Yet most neglect student agency and sociocultural variation in the operationalization of STRs. This study explores the specific actions teachers and students take to build positive STRs from the vantage point of a diverse group of US middle and high school students. Research Methods: Drawing on the principles of critical collaborative research, our intergenerational team of scholars engaged 84 youth participants (ages 12–18) in qualitative data generation and analysis, using novel youth-voice elicitation techniques known as the fishbone and diamond card sort. Findings: Findings highlight specific actions that a diverse group of youth believe students and teachers take to create positive STRs and foreground the importance of teacher power, student responsibility, safe classrooms, and reciprocity in STR construction. Implications: By pinpointing specific actions that teachers can take to build positive STRs, this work raises implications for teacher education and professional development, especially as schools struggle to regain ground with students in the wake of COVID-19 disruptions. In addition, the study demonstrates how engaging youth as partners in qualitative research can help improve the conduct and products of empirical research in education, offering a model for the field of youth validation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study theoretically and empirically the relation between altruism and incentive contract design. Theoretically, we extend Fischer and Huddart (2008) to investigate how social norms reinforce managers' altruistic preferences, thus affecting the optimal contract design related to incentive strength and performance measurement. Empirically, we draw on the notion of an organization's work climate to capture managers' altruistic preferences. Using data collected from a sample of 557 managers, we find that in a work climate where managers are mostly out for themselves, firms have lower pay-for-performance sensitivity and place a greater weight on aggregate performance measures. In addition, respondents report that they engage more in undesirable actions that are unproductive and costly to firm owners. In contrast, in a work climate where managers care about others (including peers in their organizational unit), firms place lower weights on aggregate performance measures. At the same time, respondents report that they supply more effort and engage less in undesirable actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interviewers' postinterview evaluations of respondents' performance (IEPs) are paradata, used to describe the quality of the data obtained from respondents. IEPs are driven by a combination of factors, including respondents' and interviewers' sociodemographic characteristics and what actually transpires during the interview. However, relatively few studies examine how IEPs are associated with features of the response process, including facets of the interviewer-respondent interaction and patterns of responding that index data quality. We examine whether features of the response process—various respondents' behaviors and response quality indicators—are associated with IEPs in a survey with a diverse set of respondents focused on barriers and facilitators to participating in medical research. We also examine whether there are differences in IEPs across respondents' and interviewers' sociodemographic characteristics. Our results show that both respondents' behaviors and response quality indicators predict IEPs, indicating that IEPs reflect what transpires in the interview. In addition, interviewers appear to approach the task of evaluating respondents with differing frameworks, as evidenced by the variation in IEPs attributable to interviewers and associations between IEPs and interviewers' gender. Further, IEPs were associated with respondents' education and ethnoracial identity, net of respondents' behaviors, response quality indicators, and sociodemographic characteristics of respondents and interviewers. Future research should continue to build on studies that examine the correlates of IEPs to better inform whether, when, and how to use IEPs as paradata about the quality of the data obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Survey participants' mouse movements provide a rich, unobtrusive source of paradata, offering insight into the response process beyond the observed answers. However, the use of mouse tracking may require participants' explicit consent for their movements to be recorded and analyzed. Thus, the question arises of how its presence affects the willingness of participants to take part in a survey at all—if prospective respondents are reluctant to complete a survey if additional measures are recorded, collecting paradata may do more harm than good. Previous research has found that other paradata collection modes reduce the willingness to participate, and that this decrease may be influenced by the specific motivation provided to participants for collecting the data. However, the effects of mouse movement collection on survey consent and participation have not been addressed so far. In a vignette experiment, we show that reported willingness to participate in a survey decreased when mouse tracking was part of the overall consent. However, a larger proportion of the sample indicated willingness to both take part and provide mouse-tracking data when these decisions were combined, compared to an independent opt-in to paradata collection, separated from the decision to complete the study. This suggests that survey practitioners may face a trade-off between maximizing their overall participation rate and maximizing the number of participants who also provide mouse-tracking data. Explaining motivations for paradata collection did not have a positive effect and, in some cases, even reduced participants' reported willingness to take part in the survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use a unique panel of household survey data—the Austrian version of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) for 2008–2011—which have been linked to individual administrative records on both state unemployment benefits and earnings. We assess the extent and structure of misreporting across similar benefits and between benefits and earnings. We document that many respondents fail to report participation in one or more of the unemployment programs. Moreover, they inflate earnings for periods when they are unemployed but receiving unemployment compensation. To demonstrate the impact of income source confusion on estimators, we estimate standard Mincer wage equations. Since unemployment is associated with lower education, the reports of unemployment benefits as earnings bias downward the returns to education. Failure to report unemployment benefits also leads to substantial sample bias when selecting on these benefits, as one might in estimating the returns to job training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]