Analyzing Repeated Surveys (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences)

Repeated surveys--a technique for asking the same questions to different samples of people--presents researchers with an opportunity to analyze changes in society as a whole. Analyzing Repeated Surveys begins with a thoughtful discussion of the classic issue of how to separate cohort, period, and age effects. It then covers methods for modeling aggregate trends, two methods for estimating cohort replacement's contribution to aggregate trends, a decomposition model for clarifying how microchange contributes to aggregate change, and simple models that are useful for the assessment of changing individual-level effects. Designed for readers with a fundamental background in regression analysis, this book uses illustrative examples and clear prose to provide readers with simple but effective tools for exploiting the repetition in repeated surveys.