Advances in Cross-National Comparison: A European Working Book for Demographic and Socio-Economic Variables PDF
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Advances in Cross National Comparison A European Working Book for Demographic and Socio-Economic Variables Advances in Cross National Comparison A European Working Book for Demographie and Soeio-Eeonomie Variables Edited by Jürgen H. P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik Centre for Survey Research and Methodology Mannheim, Germany and Christof Wolf University of Cologne Cologne, Germany Springer Science+B usiness Media, LLC ISBN 978-1-4613-4828-3 ISBN 978-1-4419-9186-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-9186-7 ©2oo3 Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Kluwer AcademiclPlenum Publishers in 2003 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 2003 All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exc\usive use by the purchaser of the work. Acknowledgments Many colleagues and institutions have helped us to prepare this book. We are indebtedtoall ofthem. The Fritz Thyssen Stiftung (Cologne) was so kind as to finance a sympo sium which we organised in 1999. Most of the papers presented at this occasionhave been revised and are included inthis book. Asecond round of papers were presented a year later during a session we organised in the context of the Fifth International Conference on Logic and Methodology. Again most of the papers presented at this occasion were revised by their authors and are included in this volume. We want to thank all colleagues who helped us and were in these two events. Especially those who were so kind as to present and discuss their ideas with us and those who have contributedtothis book. Our gratitudealso goes to ESOMAR, theInternational Labour Office and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics for granting their permission to reprint material in this volume to which they hold the copyright. We are also grateful to the Federal Statistical Office ofGermany and CEPS/INSTEAD (Luxembourg) formaking their national versionsofthequestionnairesofthe 2002 pilot surveyofEU-SILCavailable tous. Special thanks go to Rebecca Buller and Dagmar Krebs for translating and proof-reading a number of articles. In addition we thank FRG, For schung Raum und Gesellschaft (Mannheim), for its financial assistance for this purpose. We are also grateful for the support we received from GESIS-ZUMA, Centre for Survey Researchand Methodology(Mannheim) and the Research Institute for Sociologyatthe University ofCologne (Cologne). Finally, our thanks goes to Joanna Lawrence and Joanne Duggan from Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers,who encouragedus more than once to carryon. v Contents 1. Measuring Demographicand Socio-Economic Variables in Cross-National Research: An Overview ChristofWolfandJiirgen H.P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik Part I: HarmonisingDemographicand Socio-Economic Variables: Objectives 15 2. HarmonisingData inOfficial Statistics:Development, Procedures, and Data Quality ManfredEhling 17 3. The ISSP and itsApproach to BackgroundVariables MichaelBraun and RolfUher 33 4. HarmonisingSampling Framesand Indicators inInternational MarketResearch:AGerman Perspective Menno Smid and DorisHess 49 Part II: InternationalStandards for Demographic and Socio-EconomicVariables 65 5. HarmonisationofSocio-Economic Variables inEU Statistics LeneMejer 67 Appendix:EU-SILC Materials from the Pilot Study in2002 compiledby Uwe WarnerandJiirgen H.P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik 86 vii VIII Contents 6. The ESOMARStandardDemographicClassification:A System ofInternational Socio-Economic ClassificationofRespondents to Survey Research ESOMAR 97 Part III:International Instruments for Selected Variables 123 7. International Classification ofStatus inEmployment,ICSE-93 EivindHojJmann 125 8. International Statistical ComparisonsofOccupational and Social Structures:Problems,Possibilities and the Role ofISCO-88 Eivind HojJmann 137 9. Three InternationallyStandardisedMeasures forComparative Research on Occupational Status Harry B.G.Ganzeboom and Donald1. Treiman 159 10. International Standard Classification ofEducation,ISCED 1997 UNESCO 195 11. The CASMIN Educational Classification inInternational Comparative Research HildegardBrauns,Stefani Scherer, and Susanne Steinmann 221 12. The ClassificationofEducation as aSociological Background Characteristic Jiirgen HP. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik 245 Part IV: Suggested Conventions for Selected Variables for Which Comparative InstrumentsDoNot Exist 257 13. How to Measure Sex/Genderand Age ChristofWolfandJiirgen HP.Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik 259 14. How to Measure Race and Ethnicity JiirgenHP.Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik 267 15. How to Measure Householdand Family WalterBien and Holger Quellenberg 279 16. How to Measure (New) WorkSituations BettinaLangfeldt 295 17. How to Measure Income Uwe Warner andJiirgenHP.Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik 307 Contents ix PartV: Cross-Cultural Comparisons: Empirical Applications 325 18. UsingCASMIN:The Effect ofEducationonWages inBritain and Germany Malcolm Brynin 327 19. Educationand Unemployment Risks among Market Entrants:A Comparison ofFrance,the United Kingdom and West Germany HildegardBrauns.Markus Gangl.andStefani Scherer 345 20. The Validity ofIncome Measurements inComparative Perspective: Non-Responsesand Biases ChristianHolst 367 PartVI: HarmonisingDemographic and Socio-Economic Variables:Synthesis 387 21. Comparing Demographicand Socio-EconomicVariables Across Nations:Synthesisand Recommendations JiirgenHP.Hoffmeyer-Zlotnikand ChristofWolf 389 ContributingAuthors 407 Index 409 Chapter 1 Measuring Demographic and Socio-Economic Variables in Cross-National Research An Overview CHRlSTOF WOLF AND JORGEN H.P.HOFFMEYER-ZLOTNIK 1. INTRODUCTION In the context of cross-national research the comparative measurement of demographic and socio-economic variables has not received much attention in the social sciences so far. Though there are many books and numerous articles dealing with measurement problems in cross-national research (e.g. Kohn 1989;Lonnerand Berry 1986;Niessen and Peschar 1982;0yen 1990; Przeworski and Teune 1970; Saris and Kaase 1997; Szalai and Petrella 1977), only very few concentrate on the specific problems of comparing background variables across nations (a comprehensive discussion can be found in Braun and Mohler 2002; discussions with respect to particular variables are, for example, presented by Braun and Miiller 1997;Inkeles and Rossi 1956; Schweitzer 1979; Treiman 1977). The main objective of this volume is to help fill this gap, at least, with regard to comparisons between European countries but many arguments made by the authors in this book and most ofthe instruments presented here will also be applicable to coun tries outside ofEurope. However, one should be especially cautious when researching countries with totally different cultural traditions situated in diverse developmental stages (lowell 1998; Kuchler 1998; Scheuch 1989). Demographic and socio-economic variables, often also called back ground variables, "contain information necessary to define homogeneous subgroups, to establish causal relations between attitudes and societal facts, and to define differences between scores on scales. Inshort,they allowus to define contexts in which respondents' opinions, attitudes, and behavior are AdvancesinCross-NationalComparison, EditedbyHoffrneyer-ZlotnikandWolf KluwerAcademic/PlenumPublishers,NewYork.2003 2 ChristofWolf,Jiirgen H.P.HofJmeyer-ZIotnik socio-economically embedded" (Braun and Mohler 2002: 112). Though we will not make the attempt to develop a comprehensive list of background variables (in this respect see Zetterberg 1965: 58-60), there should be wide agreement that measures ofage, sex or gender, education, status in employ ment, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, and household or family related variables are all attributes that fall into this category. Even though back ground variables play such a central role in social research, be it national or cross-national, the measurement problems these variables pose are only rarely addressed in detail and, as was mentioned before, books specifically dealing with these problems are hard to find. With the current volume we hope to improve this situation for those interested in cross-national social research. The main driving force behind the effort to edit this volume is our conviction that instruments allowing the compatible measurement ofdemo graphic and socio-economic variables are badly needed. The ever growing number of European research projects and the fact that research today is more and more frequently funded by European institutions (e.g. the Euro pean Commission or the European Science Foundation) will increase the demand for such instruments inthe future. This book is primarily directed towards scientists involved in cross national research such as the International Social Survey Programme, the European Social Surveyor the World Health Survey. Although these researchers come from various disciplines - e.g. sociology, political sci ences, psychology, economy, epidemiology - they all have the common problem ofharmonising the measures ofbackground variables in compara tive perspective.Inotherareas ofresearch, especiallyin market research and in the field of official statistics, there is a somewhat longer tradition of working on harmonised measures. The globalisation of markets and the process ofEuropean integration both resulted inpressingneeds for the com parative measurement of demographic and socio-economic variables. We have therefore included contributions from representatives of these two researchareas in this volume, since we believe that they have much to add to the topic presentedhere. The title we have chosen, is intended to indicate our purpose to presenta 'working book', i.e. a book presenting the ongoing work with respect to the measurement ofbackground variables and serving as a reference source for this matter. Since this line ofwork is far from complete and a standardised commonly accepted instrument for the measurement of background vari ables is not in reach so far, the volume is not a handbook but only reflects the developments achieved up to now. We hope to be able to update the book periodicallyto extendthe discussion to more variablesand includenew measurement instruments. MeasuringDemographicand Socio-Economic Variables 3 2. GENERALASPECTS OFCROSS-NATIONAL RESEARCH To be sure, the harmonisation of background variables is only a relatively small, although important aspect in cross-national research. Other problem areas include the comparative measurement of opinions and behaviours, sampling techniques, the mode ofdata collection, data coding and process ing (for a recent overview ofproblems in cross-national research see Hark ness, van de Vijver, and Mohler 2002). With respect to survey questions regarding opinions and behaviours special translation techniques have been developed that help assure functional equivalence ofindicators. Since some excellent texts are available that cover these techniques we do not discuss them in this volume (see, for example,Behlingand Law 2000; Harkness and Schoua-Glusberg 1998;Mohler,Smith,and Harkness 1998). Nonetheless, it should be stressed that in addition to translating survey questions from one cultural context into another, questions concerning the design ofthe studyhave to be solved.For instance, the comparabilityoftwo or more data sets is only guaranteed if the sampling frames and sampling procedures are compatible, e.g. random samples, and if the sampling is carried out in a comparable form. Ofcourse, this depends on the kinds of registers or alternative techniques available for sampling the target popula tion in the countries involved and the comparability of these registers or techniques. What makes the situation even more complicated is that the optimal sampling approach not only is contingent on the target population but also depends on the mode ofdata collection.Hence, comparable random samples for telephone surveys differ considerably from samples for face-to face interviews and these in turn differ from samples for mail surveys.The mode ofdata collection does not only influence the sampling procedure but has implications for the design of the questionnaire and the wording of questions, too.Ofcourse, all these points do not only apply to international research but also to comparisons of different national studies. However, since national conventions differ in all ofthe above mentioned areas these problems are more pronounced in cross-national studies. Consequently, studies from different countries are only comparable in the strict sense ifall ofthese problems are considered and every measure is taken to conduct the studies in the same way. Obviously, this is an ideal situation that will never fully be achieved. But it should be clear that the more the studies that shall becompareddepart from this idealsituation, the less comparable they are. General discussions ofthe different aspects ofsampling and data collec tion are beyond the scope of this volume. However, in those cases where these problems are directlyrelated to specificvariables they are discussed in the respective chapters, e.g. in Chapter 18 in connection with the measure-
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