Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-7cz98 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-14T11:39:59.345Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reaching Migrants in Survey Research: The Use of the Global Positioning System to Reduce Coverage Bias in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2017

Pierre F. Landry  and
Mingming Shen
Pierre F. Landry
Affiliation:
Yale University, Department of Political Science, 124 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06520–8301. e-mail: pierre.landry@yale.edu
Mingming Shen
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, School of Government, 416 Library Building, Peking University, Beijing, China 100871. e-mail: shenmm@rcccpku.org
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the 'Save PDF' action button.

List-based samples are often biased because of coverage errors. The problem is especially acute in societies where the level of internal migration is high and where record keeping on the population is not reliable. We propose a solution based on spatial sampling that overcomes the inability to reach migrants in traditional area samples based on household lists. A comparison between a traditional study and our sample of Beijing demonstrates that coverage bias is greatly reduced. The successful incorporation of mobile urban residents has important substantive effects, in both univariate and multivariate analyses of public opinion data.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Political Analysis , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , Winter 2005 , pp. 1 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Political Methodology 2005 

References

Anderson, Margo J., and Fienberg, Stephen E. 2001. Who Counts? The Politics of Census-aking in Contemporary America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Brick, J. Michael, Waksberg, Joseph, Kulp, Dale, and Starer, Amy. 1995. “Bias In List-Assisted Telephone Samples.” Public Opinion Quarterly 59: 218–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chamberlain, Robert. “Calculating Distances on the Surface of the Earth.” (Available from http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/geo/gisfaq?Q5.1; accessed Nov. 6, 2002.)Google Scholar
Fan, C. Cindy. 2000. “Migration and Gender in China.” China Review: 423–454.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Alice, Goldstein, Sidney, Guo, Shenyang. 1991. “Temporary Migrants in Shanghai Households, 1984.” Demography 28: 275–291.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldstein, Sidney. 1987. “Forms of Mobility and Their Policy Implications: Thailand and China Compared.” Social Forces 65: 915–942.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodkind, Daniel, and West, Loraine A. 2002. “China's Floating Population: Definitions, Data and Recent Findings.” Urban Studies 39: 2237–2251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gui, Shixun, Xian, Liu. 1992. “Urban Migration in Shanghai, 1950–88: Trends and Characteristics.” Population and Development Review 18: 533–548.Google Scholar
Johnson, D. Gale. 1994. “Effects of Institutions and Policies on Rural Population Growth with Application to China.” Population and Development Review 20: 503–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kish, Leslie. 1965. Survey Sampling. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Kish, Leslie. 1987. Statistical Design for Research. New York: Wiley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kviz, Frederick J. 1984. “Bias in a Directory Sample for a Mail Survey of Rural Households.” Public Opinion Quarterly 48: 801–806.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liang, Zai, White, Michael J. 1996. “Internal Migration in China, 1950–1988.” Demography 33: 375–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Redfern, J. V., et al. 2002. “Biases in Estimating Population Size from an Aerial Census: A Case Study in the Kruger National Park, South Africa.” South African Journal of Science 9: 455–461.Google Scholar
Shen, Mingming. 2001. “Analysis and Forecast of Urban Resident's Confidence during the Transition to a Market Economy.” In Reforms, Development and Social Changes, ed. Mingming, Shen. Beijing: Huaxia.Google Scholar
Skerry, Peter. 2000. Counting on the Census? Race, Group Identity, and the Evasion of Politics. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Solinger, Dorothy J. 1995. “China's Urban Transients in the Transition from Socialism and the Collapse of the Communist ‘Urban Public Goods Regime.’” Comparative Politics 27: 127–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solinger, Dorothy J. 1999. Contesting Citizenship in Urban China: Peasant Migrants, the State and the Logic of the Market. University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SSB (State Statistical Bureau of China). 1997. Materials on the 1% Population Sample of China. China Statistics Press.Google Scholar
SSB (State Statistical Bureau of China). 2002. China Population by Township. China Statistics Press.Google Scholar
Steenkamp, H. A., Van Aardt, C. J. 2001. Estimated Undercount of the White Population during the 1996 Population Census for the Randburg Magisterial District. Pretoria: Bureau of Market Research, University of South Africa.Google Scholar
Subcommittee on Census and Population [U.S. Congress: House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service]. 1987. Undercount Problem in Los Angeles: Counting Homeless in Decennial Census. Hearing before the Subcommittee on Census and Population of the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, House of Representatives, 100th Congress, first session, April.Google Scholar
Tull, Donald S., and Albaum, Gerald S. 1977. “Bias in Random Digit Dialed Surveys.” Public Opinion Quarterly 41: 389–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
USCMB (U.S. Census Monitoring Board). 2000. Estimated Census 2000 Undercount by State. (Available from http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS30212.)Google Scholar
Wu, Xiaogang, and Treiman, Donald J. 2004. “The Household Registration System and Social Stratification in China: 1955–1996.” Demography 41: 363–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, Xiushi. 1993. “Household Registration, Economic Reform and Migration.” International Migration Review 27: 796–818.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhang, Li. 2001. Strangers in the City: Reconfigurations of Space, Power, and Social Networks within China's Floating Population. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar