Registers or surveys – does the type of microdata matter for empirical analyses of consumption behavior?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Kim Abildgren ◽  
Andreas Kuchler ◽  
America Solange Lohmann Rasmussen ◽  
Henrik Sejerbo Sørensen
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Private Consumption ◽  
Consumer Demand ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
Close Match ◽  
Consumption Behavior ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Demand Functions ◽  
Empirical Analyses

In recent years it has come into focus whether longitudinal microdata on consumption derived from administrative registers can constitute an attractive supplement to survey data. This paper explores the consistency between register-imputed and survey-based consumption figures at the household level for Denmark over the period 2002–15. Moreover, it presents estimated consumer demand functions based on the two types of microdata for the same households. The paper finds no significant differences between the marginal propensities to consume out of income estimated on the basis of the two data sources. Furthermore, it demonstrates a close match between total private consumption in the national-accounts statistics and the register-based consumption microdata aggregated over all households.

Taking Aim at Attack Advertising

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Fridkin ◽  
Patrick Kenney
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Empirical Validation ◽  
Negative Campaigning ◽  
Senate Elections ◽  
Campaign Messages ◽  
Negative Messages ◽  
The Impact

This book develops and tests the “tolerance and tactics theory of negativity.” The theory argues that citizens differ in their tolerance of negative campaigning. Also, candidates vary in the tactics used to attack their opponents, with negative messages varying in their relevance to voters and in the civility of their tone. The interplay between citizens’ tolerance of negativity and candidates’ negative messages helps clarify when negative campaigning will influence citizens’ evaluations of candidates and their likelihood of voting. A diverse set of data sources was collected from U.S. Senate elections (e.g., survey data, experiments, content analysis, focus groups) across several years to test the theory. The tolerance and tactics theory of negativity receives strong empirical validation. First, people differ systematically in their tolerance for negativity, and their tolerance changes over the course of the campaign. Second, people’s levels of tolerance consistently and powerfully influence how they assess negative messages. Third, the relevance and civility of negative messages consistently influence citizens’ assessments of candidates competing for office. That is, negative messages focusing on relevant topics and utilizing an uncivil tone produce significant changes in people’s impressions of the candidates. Furthermore, people’s tolerance of negativity influences their susceptibility to negative campaigning. Specifically, relevant and uncivil messages are most influential for people who are least tolerant of negative campaigning. The relevance and civility of campaign messages also alter people’s likelihood of voting, and the impact of negative messages on turnout is more consequential for people with less tolerance of negativity.

scholarly journals Why Is Growth in Developing Countries So Hard to Measure?

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-242
Author(s):  
Noam Angrist ◽  
Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg ◽  
Dean Jolliffe
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
Large Share ◽  
System Of National Accounts ◽  
Growth Measurement ◽  
Audit Data

Occasional widely publicized controversies have led to the perception that growth statistics from developing countries are not to be trusted. Based on the comparison of several data sources and analysis of novel IMF audit data, we find no support for the view that growth is on average measured less accurately or manipulated more in developing than in developed countries. While developing countries face many challenges in measuring growth, so do higher-income countries, especially those with complex and sometimes rapidly changing economic structures. However, we find consistently higher dispersion of growth estimates from developing countries, lending support to the view that classical measurement error is more problematic in poorer countries and that a few outliers may have had a disproportionate effect on (mis)measurement perceptions. We identify several measurement challenges that are specific to poorer countries, namely limited statistical capacity, the use of outdated data and methods, the large share of the agricultural sector, the informal economy, and limited price data. We show that growth measurement based on the System of National Accounts (SNA) can be improved if supplemented with information from other data sources (for example, satellite-based data on vegetation yields) that address some of the limitations of SNA.

scholarly journals Harnessing Administrative Records for Official Statistics on People and Households

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Misty L Heggeness
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Census Bureau ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Official Statistics ◽  
Administrative Records ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Federal Statistical ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Working Age ◽  
The Impact

The availability and excessiveness of alternative (non-survey) data sources, collected on a daily, hourly, and sometimes second-by-second basis, has challenged the federal statistical system to update existing protocol for developing official statistics. Federal statistical agencies collect data primarily through survey methodologies built on frames constructed from administrative records. They compute survey weights to adjust for non-response and unequal sampling probabilities, impute answers for nonresponse, and report official statistics via tabulations from these survey. The U.S. federal government has rigorously developed these methodologies since the advent of surveys -- an innovation produced by the urgent desire of Congress and the President to estimate annual unemployment rates of working age men during the Great Depression. In the 1930s, Twitter did not exist; high-scale computing facilities were not abundant let alone cheap, and the ease of the ether was just a storyline from the imagination of fiction writers. Today we do have the technology, and an abundance of data, record markers, and alternative sources, which, if curated and examined properly, can help enhance official statistics. Researchers at the Census Bureau have been experimenting with administrative records in an effort to understand how these alternative data sources can improve our understanding of official statistics. Innovative projects like these have advanced our knowledge of the limitations of survey data in estimating official statistics. This paper will discuss advances made in linking administrative records to survey data to-date and will summarize the research on the impact of administrative records on official statistics.

scholarly journals Comparing Discourse and Policy Network Approaches: Evidence from Water Policy on Micropollutants

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Schaub ◽  
Florence Metz
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Policy Networks ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Policy Network ◽  
Network Approach ◽  
Coalition Structures ◽  
Network Approaches ◽  
Policy Proposals

To understand how actors make collective policy decisions, scholars use policy and discourse network approaches to analyze interdependencies among actors. While policy networks often build on survey data, discourse networks typically use media data to capture the beliefs or policy preferences shared by actors. One of the reasons for the variety of data sources is that discourse data can be more accessible to researchers than survey data (or vice versa). In order to make an informed decision on valid data sources, researchers need to understand how differences in data sources may affect results. As this remains largely unexplored, we analyze the differences and similarities between policy and discourse networks. We systematically compare policy networks with discourse networks in respect of the types of actors participating in them, the policy proposals actors advocate and their coalition structures. For the policy field of micropollutants in surface waters in Germany, we observe only small differences between the results obtained using the policy and discourse network approaches. We find that the discourse network approach particularly emphasizes certain actor types, i.e., expanders who seek to change the policy status quo. The policy network approach particularly reflects electoral interests, since preferences for policies targeting voters are less visible. Finally, different observation periods reveal some smaller differences in the coalition structures within the discourse network. Beyond these small differences, both approaches come to largely congruent results with regards to actor types, policy preferences and coalition structures. In our case, the use of discourse and policy network approaches lead to similar conclusions regarding the study of policy processes.

The Trendsetter

2020 ◽  
pp. 168-209
Author(s):  
Rachel K. Gibson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
The United States ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Web Content ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
Original Analysis ◽  
Digital Campaigning

This chapter examines developments in digital campaigning in the United States during the period 1994–2012. It does so by reviewing the findings from the secondary literature, and conducting original analysis of web content and national survey data. These data sources build a picture of key changes in the supply and demand for digital campaigning in the United States and particularly whether they fit the four-phase model of development. The results show that the model fits, and that US parties and voters were considerably faster in engaging with web campaigning than was the case elsewhere. This enthusiasm appeared to be driven, to an extent, by the more conducive regulatory environment and also innovation among left-wing organizations and particularly the Democrats from the middle of the first decade of the 2000s. Their ability to sustain activist involvement in their online cause beyond 2008, however, is challenged by the author’s findings.

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