When experts disagree: Response aggregation and Its consequences in expert surveys

Lindstadt, Rene ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7349-465X, Proksch, Sven-Oliver and Slapin, Jonathan B. 2020. When experts disagree: Response aggregation and Its consequences in expert surveys. Political Science Research and Methods 8 (3) , pp. 580-588. 10.1017/psrm.2018.52

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Abstract

Political scientists use expert surveys to assess latent features of political actors. Experts, though, are unlikely to be equally informed and assess all actors equally well. The literature acknowledges variance in measurement quality, but pays little attention to the implications of uncertainty for aggregating responses. We discuss the nature of the measurement problem in expert surveys. We then propose methods to assess the ability of experts to judge where actors stand and to aggregate expert responses. We examine the effects of aggregation for a prominent survey in the literature on party politics and EU integration. Using a Monte Carlo simulation, we demonstrate that it is better to aggregate expert responses using the median or modal response, rather than the mean.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Department of Politics and International Relations (POLIR)
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press (CUP)
ISSN:	2049-8470
Related URLs:	http://repository.essex.ac.uk/23080/
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	25 January 2019
Date of Acceptance:	25 September 2018
Last Modified:	08 Nov 2023 13:59
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/118834

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