Panel Studies Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Panel studies collect information from the same individuals, the panel, at two or more time points, or waves. Experimental research design incorporates a panel insofar as the same subjects are tested before and after application of the treatment. In survey research, panels of respondents are reinter viewed, and there is usually a good deal of continuity in the content of the questionnaire. Because panel studies follow the same respondents, they are well-suited to addressing such topics as individual-level attitude change and political learning. Panel designs can also help resolve questions of causal order among variables of interest and are generally considered superior to repeated cross-section designs for testing causality. Most panel studies in political science are based on a prospective panel design in which the first wave establishes a baseline for investigating subsequent change, such as increased knowledge about candidates. Some panel studies include a retrospective panel design in which respondents are questioned about a period prior to the initial wave.

Panel studies vary considerably in their number of waves and the time between waves. Some panel studies cover only a few days or weeks, while others cover many years. The American National Election Study (ANES) typically interviews a panel of respondents shortly before and again shortly after election day. For the 2008 presidential election, ANES conducted a six-wave panel survey from September 2007 through May 2009, which allowed researchers to track citizen assessments of candidates throughout the campaign. An especially ambitious panel study, known as the generations and politics project, followed high school seniors and parents beginning in 1965, with follow-up interviews in 1973 and 1982. The high school senior panel was contacted a final time in 1997. This is an example of a special kind of panel study, sometimes called a cohort study because it followed specific age cohorts— the high school senior cohort and the parent cohort—with repeated interviews. The long time span covered by the panel study has proven especially valuable in distinguishing between generational, life cycle, and period effects on continuity and change in political orientations. These effects are difficult to disentangle with repeated cross-sectional data.

Although panel studies can provide rich data and powerful leverage over longitudinal research questions, they can be difficult to execute. Simply keeping track of large numbers of panel participants can be a daunting administrative task. An inevitable part of panel studies is panel attrition. Respondents may drop out of a panel for a variety of reasons: they cannot be relocated, poor health prevents them from continuing, or they simply tire of being asked the same questions several times. Panel attrition can introduce biases into a study’s sample if the respondents who fall out of the panel are systematically different from those who continue. Experience suggests that several types of respondents are more apt to drop out of panel studies: younger and older participants, as well as those of lower socioeconomic status and low political interest. Panel attrition can aggravate the biases that are introduced by initial nonresponse in surveys (i.e., refusals or noncontact), so researchers employ an assortment of techniques to preserve panel participation, ranging from gentle persuasion to cash payments. If panel attrition appears to be problematic, a refresher sample can be drawn from the same population and used to supplement the original panel.

Care should also be taken that panel respondents are not overly sensitized by repeated waves covering the same topics and asking the same questions. For instance, some respondents who report increased campaign interest over the course of a panel study may have been motivated to follow the campaign because of their study participation.

The analysis of panel data raises some special issues. For example, when a respondent is asked the same question in two panel waves, it is likely that the measurement error associated with that survey question in the second wave will be correlated with the measurement error associated with the question in the first wave. This auto correlated error violates important assumptions underlying ordinary least squares regression. Thus, researchers may need to consider other analytic techniques, such as two-stage least squares. Despite these caveats, a well-designed and carefully executed panel study will provide superior data for longitudinal research.

Bibliography:

Jennings, M. Kent. “Survey Research and Political Socialization.” In A Telescope on Society: Survey Research and Social Science at the University of Michigan and Beyond, edited by James S. House, F.Thomas Juster, Robert L. Kahn, Howard Schuman, and Eleanor Singer, 98–117. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004.
Markus, Gregory B. Analyzing Panel Data. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications. Weisberg, Herbert F. The Total Survey Error Approach: A Guide to the New Science of Survey Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

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