Apples and Oranges? The Problem of Equivalence in Comparative Research

Stegmueller, Daniel

doi:10.1093/pan/mpr028

Cited by 77 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…Moreover, the uneven operation of knowledge predictors across groups suggests knowledge comparisons may involve ''apples and oranges'' (cf. Stegmueller 2011).…”

Section: Group Differences In Political Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Mind the Gap: Why Large Group Deficits in Political Knowledge Emerge—And What To Do About Them

Pérez

2015

Polit Behav

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Large group differences in political knowledge raise strong concerns about lasting inequities in U.S. politics. I argue such gaps emerge when factual questions operate unevenly across diverse populations, thereby inflating actual knowledge differences between groups. I illustrate this by revisiting the large knowledge deficit often observed among Latinos relative to Whites. Using a survey with traditional factual questions (e.g., what office is held by John Roberts?) and new Latino-themed items (e.g., what office is held by Marco Rubio?), I show that Whites are more likely than Latinos to correctly answer many conventional questions due to item features that are unrelated to people's level of knowledge (i.e., item bias). Latino-themed questions, however, do not display these extraneous characteristics. Consequently, Whites and Latinos have equal odds in correctly answering these latter items, provided they have the necessary knowledge level. I also show how such item quality differences matter in practical terms. Accordingly, I establish that using a scale of unbiased items reduces the Latino-White knowledge deficit from 31 to 8 %, with the latter gap more fully explained by individual differences in established correlates of political knowledge. I then show that uneven item performance distorts inferences about knowledge's influence on mass opinion. I discuss the implications of these results for political knowledge's conceptualization and measurement in an increasingly diverse U.S. polity.

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“…Moreover, the uneven operation of knowledge predictors across groups suggests knowledge comparisons may involve ''apples and oranges'' (cf. Stegmueller 2011).…”

Section: Group Differences In Political Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Mind the Gap: Why Large Group Deficits in Political Knowledge Emerge—And What To Do About Them

Pérez

2015

Polit Behav

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“…Of course, differences between empirical findings may also be due to differences in data and estimation techniques used, or structural and institutional differences between countries and periods considered (see, e.g ., Stegmueller, ). The available evidence is not yet extensive enough to conduct a formal meta‐analysis, which is an, also in economics, increasingly popular methodology for synthesizing empirical findings ( e.g ., Poot, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Cultural Diversity of Migrant Employees Affect Innovation?

Özgen

Peters

Niebuhr

et al. 2014

International Migration Review

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Increasing international labor migration has important effects on the workforce composition of firms in all migrant-receiving countries. The consequences of these changes for firm performance have attracted growing attention in recent years. In this paper, we focus explicitly on the impact of cultural diversity among migrant employees on the innovativeness of firms. We briefly synthesize empirical evidence from a range of contexts across Europe, North America, and New Zealand. We then utilize two unique and harmonized linked employer-employee datasets to provide comparative microeconometric evidence for Germany and the Netherlands. Our panel datasets contain detailed information on the generation of new products and services, determinants of innovation success, and the composition of employment in establishments of firms over the period 1999 to 2006. We find that innovation in both countries is predominantly deter-1 The empirical research reported in this paper was conducted as part of the 2009-2013 Migrant Diversity and Regional Disparity in Europe (MIDI-REDIE) project, funded by the NORFACE-Migration research program, . Financial support from the German Research Foundation (DFG) is also gratefully acknowledged as part of the projects "Diversity and success of organizations" and "Diversity and individual careers." IMR Volume 48 Number S1 (Fall 2014):S377-S416 S377 mined by establishment size and industry. Moreover, obstacles encountered and organizational changes faced by firms drive innovation too. With respect to the composition of employment, the presence of high-skilled staff is most important. Cultural diversity of employees has a positive partial correlation with product innovation. The size and statistical significance of this effect depends on the econometric model specification and the country considered. We conclude from the literature synthesis and the new comparative evidence that cultural diversity of employees can make a positive, but modest and context dependent, contribution to innovation.

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“…An important reason is the equivalence between research instruments that is required to reliably compare cultures or countries. Regardless of their topic of interest, researchers face the issue of whether their results can be reliably and meaningfully compared or are like 'apples and oranges' (Stegmueller, 2011). Most researchers are fully aware of this and acknowledge the existence of country heterogeneity in attitudes and preferences.…”

Section: Cross-cultural Research and Problems Of Equivalencementioning

confidence: 99%

Questionnaire translation in the European Company Survey: Conditions conducive to the effective implementation of a TRAPD-based approach

Curtarelli

Houten

2018

Trans-Int

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The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) carries out three recurring Europe-wide surveys. Up until 2013, the quality control of the questionnaire translation for these surveys was performed using back-translation. In the 2013 edition of the European Company Survey (ECS) -an establishment-level telephone survey -Eurofound for the first time followed a modified version of the Translation, Review, Adjudication, Pretesting, and Documentation (TRAPD) approach to questionnaire translation. This paper outlines why the TRAPD approach was adopted and how it was operationalised -resulting in a modified TRAPD implementation -for the purposes of the ECS 2013. It provides a reflection on the conditions that proved particularly conducive or obstructive for its efficient and effective implementation and the lessons that can be drawn for future surveys.

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Apples and Oranges? The Problem of Equivalence in Comparative Research

Cited by 77 publications

References 79 publications

Mind the Gap: Why Large Group Deficits in Political Knowledge Emerge—And What To Do About Them

Mind the Gap: Why Large Group Deficits in Political Knowledge Emerge—And What To Do About Them

Does Cultural Diversity of Migrant Employees Affect Innovation?

Questionnaire translation in the European Company Survey: Conditions conducive to the effective implementation of a TRAPD-based approach

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