Evaluating,Comparing, Monitoring,and Improving Representativeness of Survey Response Through R‐Indicators and Partial R‐Indicators

Non‐response is a common source of error in many surveys. Because surveys often are costly instruments, quality‐cost trade‐offs play a continuing role in the design and analysis of surveys. The advances of telephone, computers, and Internet all had and still have considerable impact on the design of surveys. Recently, a strong focus on methods for survey data collection monitoring and tailoring has emerged as a new paradigm to efficiently reduce non‐response error. Paradata and adaptive survey designs are key words in these new developments. Prerequisites to evaluating, comparing, monitoring, and improving quality of survey response are a conceptual framework for representative survey response, indicators to measure deviations thereof, and indicators to identify subpopulations that need increased effort. In this paper, we present an overview of representativeness indicators or R‐indicators that are fit for these purposes. We give several examples and provide guidelines for their use in practice.     

中国精英对中欧关系现状和前景看法

2010年5月至8月,在欧盟第七框架项目解析中国人对欧盟的看法的资助下,中国社会科学院研究生院联合中国人民大学等机构针对中国精英就中欧关系现状和前景及与此相关的问题看法进行了调查。调查数据显示:第一,精英对欧盟的知晓率比较低。第二,在信息渠道选择上,互联网、电视和报纸是三大主要工具,不同工具对中欧关系看法具有一定的影响。第三,中国精英对欧盟保持较好的印象。第四,精英认为欧盟的国际政治和经济影响力仅次于美国,且均强于中国。第五,精英对中欧关系现状和前景的看法日趋谨慎和保守。第六,通过回归分析可以发现,教育、收入、学习和工作经历等变量对精英的欧洲观有着明显影响。第七,学者和媒体工作者对中欧关系的现状和前景的看法和评价,均比其他群体更为积极和乐观。     

基于多校区模式的图书馆中文期刊选刊工作探讨——以广东农工商职业技术学院图书馆为例

该文以广东农工商职业技术学院图书馆为例,分析了基于多校区多馆模式的中文期刊选刊的现状,探讨了选刊工作中存在的问题以及如何使馆藏期刊结构和质量更加合理化、科学化,优化选刊工作更好地适应学校校情馆情的和谐发展。     

Analysis of travel behavior in Arab communities in Israel: a comparison of household surveys

This paper analyzes the main characteristics of travel behavior by the Arab minority community in Israel and discusses two issues related to household travel surveys: data collection among minorities and under-reporting of mid-day trips.Household travel surveys are generally designed and conducted for the majority population and, therefore, lack a proper accounting of minorities and miss many of their less-frequent trips. An alternative approach to conducting household surveys is presented, with the aim of improving data quality for transportation planning. The survey was designed for and conducted in three Arab towns in Israel. The main improvement of the survey involves better interaction between interviewer and interviewee, which should materialize into a relaxed environment that allows for obtaining detailed, reliable results within a reasonable amount of time.The results of the survey employing the alternative approach were compared to a sub-sample of the same towns taken from a regional survey conducted by the regional planning agency at the same time. The paper presents simple statistics on the main variables for each survey. Significant differences are found in the two data sets, mostly regarding the frequency of less frequent, non-home-based trips. A plausible explanation for these differences relates to the more detailed and improved data collected in the new survey.     

Exploring the Impact of Cultural Value Orientations on Market Mavenism and Opinion Leadership

Market mavens and opinion leaders are two key types of consumer influentials. The focus of this research is to extend their predictor characteristics by drawing on the four-way horizontal and vertical individualism-collectivism typology. The theoretical and practical contributions of this study are established by the findings based on the survey data collected from 313 online consumer panelists in the United States. Market mavenism and opinion leadership were independent yet moderately related concepts. Vertical individualism and horizontal collectivism were significant predictors of both market mavenism and opinion leadership while horizontal individualism affected only market mavenism. Vertical collectivism did not predict either type of consumer influentials. Interaction with service employees moderated the relationships between horizontal collectivism and market mavenism and between vertical individualism and opinion leadership.     

South African Capital Structure Decisions: A Survey of Listed Companies

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the factors that influence capital structure decisions in South Africa from the perspective of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The results of a survey of 33 CFOs of JSE listed companies find that South African CFOs are equally likely to follow the Pecking Order and Static Trade-Off theories. However, small companies are more likely to follow the Pecking Order theory while large companies are more likely to follow the Static Trade-Off theory. In addition, the results show that South African companies are more likely to follow the Static Trade-Off theory than companies in other emerging countries.     

2008年退耕还林工程县社会经济效益监测报告

经对全国21个省(自治区、直辖市)的100个退耕县、100个村和1000个农户的7年连续固定跟踪监测结果显示,退耕还林能有效地减轻陡坡地的水土流失和土地沙化危害,能够稳定地增强粮食产品持续供给能力,能够促进农村产业结构调整和农民增收。退耕还林的直补政策是推动工程顺利进展的核心,但在新形势下,对于巩固成果需要进行完善。     

Learning from cost analyses: an illustration from the UK's New Deal for Disabled People (NDDP)

This article describes a cost analysis of an employment programme available to people claiming incapacity benefits in the UK. The NDDP was delivered locally by contracted providers called ‘job brokers’. The cost analysis found great variation among job brokers' costs and profitability, much of which seems attributable to differences in job broker size. The methods described here will be useful in evaluations wherever multiple institutions are contracted by governments to deliver services, especially when these institutions are involved in several different programmes.