I was randomly surfing the internet when I happened across this little gem ¹. I read it and immediately thought of something that Mankiw² has been espousing for quite a few years, pigovian taxes ³.

From the arm of my chair I commented on the article:

“One of the first, and definitely not the last example of a pigovian tax. Essentially, an attempt to offset the cost of goods that have negative externalities – with taxes. Unfortunately, this one was poorly marketed but that doesn’t mean it’s any less necessary.”

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The question posed to the group of 5 Bloggers this month was: “The survey monkey conundrum:  the upsides, downsides and opportunities for researchers that access to self survey tools creates.” Links to my fellow bloggers Annie Pettit¹, Joel Rubinson², Josh Mendelsohn³ and Bernie Malinoff⁴ can be found below.

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The question posed to the group of 5 Bloggers this month was: “Mobile surveys – For/Against, Pros/Cons, Right Situations/Wrong Situations?” Links to my fellow bloggers Annie Pettit¹, Joel Rubinson², Josh Mendelsohn³ and Bernie Malinoff⁴ can be found below.

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1 topic 5 blogs: On the 15th (or very near to it!) of every month 5 market researchers post a short opinion piece on a predefined topic that is relevant to the market research sphere. The researchers: Annie Pettit¹, Bernie Malinoff², Josh Mendelsohn³, Joel Rubinson⁴ and myself. Links to their posts on the topic follow this article.

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In response to an article on ABC News: The Numbers¹

It’s not a problem that is going away anytime soon. Panel companies have an incentive to continue using less than precise and less than accurate samples, defined by two-words: gross margin.

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A  study of 17 panels and over 100,000 interviews by the Advertising Research Foundation’s¹ Online Research Quality Council² conducted in June, 2009 provides, in some cases, counter-intuitive evidence to some of the classic pitfalls associated with panel based online research.

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We asked a broad question and received some interesting yet correlated responses.
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In response to a post on Research Rants: “Is the panel research business model creating a gold farming problem?”¹

Granted, there is an incentive for people to game the system but there are numerous ways to capture and relegate this type of behaviour.

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The MRIA just recently released a statement¹ regarding the joint efforts of Research industry associations who are coordinating efforts to define industry terms relating to online research. Take the opportunity to have your say at their glossary². Interesting as well, is the use of a wiki to simplify the process of industry feedback to the definitions.

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Question

A client in government is being asked for reassurance that people with disabilities are being given equal opportunities to be heard and served. This includes ensuring that people with disabilities get appropriate accommodation if they want to participate.

How do we make provisions for this? TTY telephone surveys? “Read out loud” web surveys? Braille mail surveys? One-on-one interviews via ASL interpreter?

We already make accommodations for language, but how do we cost-effectively include the voice of the differently abled in general surveys? ¹

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