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The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 93 No. 3 2011

Survey Design and the Analysis of Satisfaction

Gabriella Conti1,2; Stephen Pudney3,4

1 University of Chicago · 2 University of Naples Federico II · 3 University of Essex · 4 Institute for Social and Economic Research

Abstract

We analyze the effect of survey design on reported job satisfaction by exploiting two quasi-experiments in the British Household Panel Survey: a change in question design and parallel use of different interview modes. We show that apparently minor differences in survey design lead to substantial biases in econometric results, particularly on gender differences. The common empirical finding that women care less about wages and prefer to work fewer hours than men appears largely an artifact of survey design rather than a true behavioral difference.

DOI
10.1162/rest_a_00202
Volume
93
Issue
3
Pages
1087-1093
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref

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