This paper presents some preliminary findings from Wave 6 of the Innovation Panel (IP6) of Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study. Understanding Society is a major panel survey in the UK. In March 2013, the sixth wave of the Innovation Panel went into the field. IP6 used a...

We analyse the results of experiments on questionnaire design and interview mode in the first four waves (2008-11) of the UK Understanding Society Innovation Panel survey. The randomised experiments relate to job, health, income, leisure and overall life-satisfaction questions and vary the...

We analyse the results of experiments on aspects of the design of questionnaire and interview mode in the 2009 wave of the new UK Understanding Society panel survey. The randomised experiments relate to job- and life-satisfaction questions and vary the labeling of response scales, the mode of...

The design of Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study calls for enhanced health content relative to its precursor study, the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). This paper documents the design and implementation of the collection of biomeasures by trained nurses in...

Economic theory suggests that when a primary earner within a couple loses their job, one potential response is for the secondary earner to seek additional paid work to bolster their household finances. Yet, the empirical quantitative evidence regarding any such ‘added worker effect’...

Public and academic debate has revealed concern with the extent and implications of national identification among minority groups in Western societies. In this paper we present new analysis of Understanding Society that expands the limited evidence on minority identification. Drawing on...

When performing data linkage, survey respondents need to provide their informed consent. Since not all respondents agree to this request, the linked dataset will have fewer observations than the survey dataset alone and bias may be introduced. By focusing on the role that survey design features...

Understanding Society was designed to be representative of the UK population using a stratified, clustered, equal probability sampling design. This paper uses Census 2001 data to analyse whether Wave 1 respondents are representative of the different regions of the UK in terms of the types of...

This paper presents some preliminary findings from Wave 5 of the Innovation Panel (IP5) of Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study. Understanding Society is a major panel survey in the UK. In February 2012, the fifth wave of the Innovation Panel went into the field. IP5 used a...

Results from IP5 suggested that a mixed mode approach affects response rates. A small qualitative follow up study was undertaken to understand the role that mode played in panel members’ decisions about whether to continue to take part and in particular the role of the web instrument in...