Michael B. Conaway

The Impact of "No Opinion" Response Options on Data Quality: Non-Attitude Reduction or an Invitation to Satisfice?

According to many seasoned survey researchers, offering a no-opinion option should reduce the pressure to give substantive re- sponses felt by respondents who have no true opinions. By contrast, the survey satisficing perspective suggests that no-opinion options may dis- courage some respondents from doing the cognitive work necessary to report the true opinions they do have. We address these arguments using data from nine experiments carried out in three household surveys. Attraction to no-opinion options was found to be greatest among re- spondents lowest in cognitive skills (as measured by educational at- tainment), among respondents answering secretly instead of orally, for questions asked later in a survey, and among respondents who devoted little effort to the reporting process. The quality of attitude reports ob- tained (as measured by over-time consistency and responsiveness to a question manipulation) was not compromised by the omission of no- opinion options. These results suggest that inclusion of no-opinion op- tions in attitude measures may not enhance data quality and instead may preclude measurement of some meaningful opinions.

Safety-Related Knowledge and Behavior Changes in Participants of Farm Safety Day Camps

Significant resources are devoted to conducting farm safety day camps throughout North America, but the impact and effectiveness of these programs has not been systematically demonstrated. This project assessed changes in safety-related knowledge and behaviors among participants in the Progressive Farmer Farm Safety Day Camp program. A written pre-test and a three-month telephone post-test were administered to three samples of participants, ages 8 to 13, in camps held in 1999, 2000, and 2001. A sample of 20 to 30 camps was included in each year of the study, with a total sample of 1,780 participants for all three years. The pre-test and post-test contained questions related to first aid and to safety around animals, ATVs, farm equipment, flowing grains, and tractors. Three scores were computed from responses to 20 knowledge and behavior items. A knowledge score indicated the number of 8 knowledge items answered correctly, a behavior risk score indicated the amount of risk exposure for the child based on 8 behavior items, and an ATV safety gear risk score indicated, for those who rode ATVs, the level of risk due to lack of proper safety gear (4 items). From pre-test to post-test, there was an increase in knowledge scores and a decrease in behavior risk scores and ATV safety gear risk scores. These changes were consistent both for males and females, for farm residents and non-farm residents, and across all ages in the sample. These results support claims for the effectiveness of farm safety day camps for increasing knowledge and improving safe practices among camp participants.

Preliminary valuation of a cultural heritage site of global significance: a Delphi contingent valuation study

the relatively few studies that have tried to estimate the economic value of preserving and restoring cultural heritage show that these public goods have substantial social benefits (navrud and ready, 2002; noonan 2003), and that the social benefits of restoration and preservation can exceed the social costs (tran Huu and navrud, 2008). a review of cultural heritage valuation studies show mean annual willingnesstopay (WtP) per household for heritage access or conservation varying from 0.01 per cent to 0.3 per cent of per capita gnP (gross national product)(Pearce et al., 2002). benefits may derive from the use of the resources (e.g. visiting historic cities, buildings, monuments and archaeological sites), or may be unrelated to any use but simply arise from the knowledge that cultural heritage exists, that they will be available for enjoyment by other people, future generations and for our own possible future use. these latter nonuse (or passive use) benefits may well extend beyond country borders, and have been found to make up a significant portion of the total economic value of cultural heritage. environmental valuation techniques like the revealed Preference techniques of the travel cost (tc) method and the Hedonic Price (HP) method can be used to value cultural heritage, but stated Preference methods (sP) like the contingent Valuation (cV) method, seem to be most appropriate in terms of their capability of capturing the potentially largest benefit component; the nonuse values. most of the research on sP methods has focused on the accuracy of estimated mean or median WtP per household, and developing best practice protocols to achieve this (arrow et al., 1993; carson, 2000). However, relatively little attention has been paid to the issue of how to determine the geographical area and number of households affected (in terms of potential loss or gain in their utility) by the change in the quality or quan-

Economic Benefits to Foreigners Visiting Morocco Accruing from the Rehabilitation of the Fes Medina: Applying Environmental Valuation Techniques to Historic Buildings, Monuments and Artifacts

What value do we place on our cultural heritage, and to what extent should we preserve historic and culturally important sites and artefacts from the ravages of weather, pollution, development and use by the general public? This innovative book attempts to answer these important questions by exploring how non-market valuation techniques – used extensively in environmental economics – can be applied to cultural heritage. The book includes twelve comprehensive case studies that estimate public values for a diverse set of cultural goods, including English cathedrals, Bulgarian monasteries, rock paintings in Canada, statues in the US, and a medieval city in Africa.

Assessing Public Support for State Government Social Welfare Expenditures

Abstract This study compared two different approaches to assessing the level of public support for social welfare spending at the state government level. The first approach focuses on the degree to which the public supports state governments involvement in public welfare spending. The second approach identifies the importance the public places on social welfare spending when compared to other possible functions of state government. Using Alabama data, the paper examined changes in general and comparative public support for state budget expenditures from 1980 to 2000 in Alabama. In addition, we examined the effectiveness of sociodemographic and attitudinal characteristics of respondents as predictors of both general and comparative support for three social welfare functions of state government. Support for “benefits for poor people” grew both generally and comparatively in the 20-year period; support for programs for older people remained steady; and support for mental health services declined. Sociodemographic predictors of general and comparative sup port were generally consistent with a self-interest model

Antismoking Mass Media Campaigns and Support for Smoke-Free Environments, Mobile County, Alabama, 2011–2012

Introduction In 2011, the Mobile County Health Department began a 12-month antismoking educational media campaign to educate citizens on the dangers of secondhand smoke. The campaign overlapped with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 3-month national antismoking Tips from Former Smokers media campaign. We aimed to evaluate the effect of these campaigns on support for smoke-free environments and knowledge of the dangers of secondhand smoke. Methods Cross-sectional precampaign and postcampaign telephone surveys collected data from a random sample of Mobile County adults in the summers of 2011 and 2012. Outcome measures included changes in support for smoke-free environments and knowledge of the dangers of secondhand smoke. The participation rate among the households that were successfully reached was 45% in 2011 and 44% in 2012. Results On the postcampaign survey, 80.9% of respondents reported seeing a television advertisement, 29.9% reported hearing a radio advertisement, and 49.0% reported seeing a billboard. Overall, support for smoke-free bars increased significantly after the intervention (38.1% to 43.8%; P = .01) but not for workplaces or restaurants. Self-reported exposure to the media campaign was associated with higher levels of support for smoke-free workplaces, restaurants, and bars. Conclusion Educational mass media campaigns have the potential to increase support for smoke-free protections and may increase knowledge about the dangers of secondhand smoke among certain populations.

Implementation of the Main Study Survey

Westat’s implementation of the main study survey consisted of several steps. In preparation for fielding the survey, a random sample of dwelling units (DU’s) was drawn; an interviewer’s training manual was prepared; and Westat’s interviewers attended a two-day training session.1 During the 14 weeks of main survey data collection, the interviewers were supervised by regional field supervisors and a project director. As interviews were completed, Westat conducted quality control edits and validation interviews. At the end of the data collection, sample weights were constructed by the Survey Research Center at the University of Maryland. Finally, data sets containing the responses to both the closed-ended and open-ended questions were prepared. This chapter provides a detailed discussion of each of these steps.

Evaluation of Open-Ended, Vote Assumption, Reconsideration, and Interviewer Evaluation Questions

This chapter examines the measures related to the reliability of the choice data. In section 5.2, responses to selected open-ended questions are examined. The primary focus is on the open-ended, follow-up questions recommended by the NOAA Panel that ask respondents to explain their reasons for voting for or against the Central Coast prevention program or for not knowing how they would vote. Section 5.2 also examines the responses to questions embedded in the presentation of the scenario. In section 5.3, responses to the vote-assumption questions are examined to explore how respondents perceived various aspects of the scenario and whether they felt pressured to vote a particular way. Section 5.4 explores the characteristics of those respondents who changed their initial vote when they were given opportunities to reconsider. In section 5.5, interviewer assessments of various aspects of the interview are examined; and finally, section 5.6 presents a summary of our qualitative analysis of reliability.

Structure of the Main Study Survey Instrument

This chapter describes section by section the wording, format, and sequence used in the main study survey instrument as well as the rationale underlying the key features of the final design. Unless otherwise indicated, all quoted text in this chapter is from the survey questionnaire itself and is presented in a different typeface. Any questionnaire text in uppercase is an interviewer instruction not read to the respondent. The complete survey instrument, including a copy of the graphics booklet, is provided in Appendix A.

Scenario Identification and Survey Design

The COS study team undertook this research effort in order to construct a monetary measure of the total ex ante economic value for preventing a specified set of natural resource injuries. There are two standard (Hicksian) monetary welfare measures used by economists: minimum willingness to accept (WTA) compensation to voluntarily give up a good and maximum willingness to pay (WTP) to obtain a good. These measures are defined in relation to an economic agent, for us, the public. Which of these two is the appropriate measure depends on who holds the relevant property rights in a particular good. If the public wishes to prevent oil spills along the coast and the oil companies have a right to spill oil along the coast, the public must purchase from the oil companies their rights to spill oil; and therefore the maximum WTP of the public is the appropriate measure of how much the prevention of oil spills along the coast is worth to the public. But if the public has the right to an unoiled coastline that the oil companies must purchase in order to spill oil, the minimum WTA compensation of the public is the appropriate measure of how much the prevention of oil spills is worth to the public. Since oil companies do not have the right to spill oil along the coast and the public holds the property right to California’s tidelands, submerged lands, and natural resources, WTA is the appropriate measure of economic value. However, using CV to measure WTA entails design features that are difficult to implement successfully;1 hence, a choice measure based on WTP was adopted instead. The WTP measure used here represents a lower bound on the desired WTA measure.2