The Gini index is probably the most commonly used indicator to measure inequality. For continuous distributions, the Gini index can be computed using several equivalent formulations. However, this is not the case with discrete distributions, where controversy remains regarding the expression to be used to estimate the Gini index. We attempt to…

With the growing availability of large-scale text-based data sets, there is an increasing need for an accessible and systematic way to analyze qualitative texts. This article introduces and details the contextual text coding (CTC) method as a mixed-methods approach to large-scale qualitative data analysis. The method is particularly useful for…

One of the most important developments in the current era of social sciences is the growing availability and diversity of data, big and small. Social scientists increasingly combine information from multiple data sets in their research. While conducting statistical analyses with linked data is relatively straightforward, borrowing information…

We present a set of studies the objective of which was to test the robustness of the acknowledgment of earned entitlement effect across different experimental modes and populations. We present three sets of results. The first is derived from a between-subject analysis of two independent, but comparable samples of nonstudent adults. One sample…

The social autopsy takes the death of a set of individuals as its starting point and then critically and systematically examines social and political conditions to explain these deaths and generate awareness and policy change. After distinguishing the social autopsy from other means to explain excess and premature deaths, we delineate three core…

Address-based sampling (ABS) refers to the use a list of addresses derived from the U.S. Postal Service's Computerized Delivery Sequence File as a sampling frame. While most residential addresses are included on an ABS frame, it still suffers from undercoverage. Undercoverage is problematic only if the uncovered units have different attributes…

Increasingly, the broader public, media and policymakers are looking to qualitative research to provide answers to our most pressing social questions. While an exciting and perhaps overdue moment for qualitative researchers, it is also a time when the method is coming under increasing scrutiny for a lack of reliability and transparency. The…

The randomized response technique (RRT) is an effective method designed to obtain the stigmatized information from respondents while assuring the privacy. In this study, we propose a new two-stage RRT model to estimate the prevalence of sensitive attribute ([pi]). A simulation study shows that the empirical mean and variance of proposed estimator…

Probes are follow-ups to survey questions used to gain insights on respondents' understanding of and responses to these questions. They are usually administered as open-ended questions, primarily in the context of questionnaire pretesting. Due to the decreased cost of data collection for open-ended questions in web surveys, researchers have argued…

This article provides a meta-analysis of studies using the crosswise model (CM) in estimating the prevalence of sensitive characteristics in different samples and populations. On a data set of 141 items published in 33 either articles or books, we compare the difference ([delta]) between estimates based on the CM and a direct question (DQ). The…

This article details the challenges we faced in collecting sensitive information in an ethnically and religiously divided community that has experienced recent violence. The discussion is based on a summer 2016 survey experiment we conducted in Jos, Nigeria, to gather information regarding residents' perceptions of local communal violence. We…

In carrying out surveys involving sensitive characteristics, randomized response models have been considered among the best techniques since they provide the maximum privacy protection to the respondents and procure honest responses. Over the years, researchers have carried out studies on the estimation of proportions of the population possessing…

The historical turn in social science has prompted scholars to engage with the work of historians on a large scale. Here, social scientists face two standard problems of selection bias: confirmation bias and convenience sampling. So far, the record of dealing with these problems has been poor, and little has been done to specify how social…

In this article, we explore the use of Facebook targeted advertisements for the collection of survey data. We illustrate the potential of survey sampling and recruitment on Facebook through the example of building a large employee--employer linked data set as part of The Shift Project. We describe the workflow process of targeting, creating, and…

Agent-based modeling holds great potential as an analytical tool. Agent-based models (ABMs) are, however, also vulnerable to critique, as they often employ stylized social worlds, with little connection to the actual environment in question. Given these concerns, there has been a recent call to more fully incorporate empirical data into ABMs. This…