Survey Design and the Determinants of Subjective Wellbeing: An Experimental Analysis

Angus Holford and Stephen Pudney

No 8760, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We analyse the results of experiments on questionnaire design and interview mode in the first four waves (2008-11) of the UK Understanding Society Innovation Panel survey. The randomised experiments relate to job, health, income, leisure and overall life-satisfaction questions and vary the labeling of response scales, mode of interviewing, and location of questions within the interview. We find significant evidence of an influence of interview mode and question design on the distribution of reported satisfaction measures, particularly for women. Results from the sort of conditional modeling used to address real research questions appear less vulnerable to design influences.

Keywords: survey design; wellbeing; satisfaction; response bias; Understanding Society (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 C25 C81 J28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2015-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-hap
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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