Survey Design and the Analysis of Satisfaction

Gabriella Conti; Stephen Pudney

doi:10.1162/rest_a_00202

Survey Design and the Analysis of Satisfaction

Gabriella Conti^1,2; Stephen Pudney^3,4

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

The Review of Economics and Statistics 2011

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 (3)
Pages: 1087-1093
Language: en
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