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When to Protect? Using the Crosswise Model to Integrate Protected and Direct Responses in Surveys of Sensitive Behavior

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2017

Daniel W. Gingerich ,
Virginia Oliveros ,
Ana Corbacho  and
Mauricio Ruiz-Vega
Daniel W. Gingerich*
Affiliation:
Department of Politics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903
Virginia Oliveros
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118
Ana Corbacho
Affiliation:
Western Hemisphere Department, International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC 20431
Mauricio Ruiz-Vega
Affiliation:
Western Hemisphere Department, International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC 20431
*
e-mail: dwg4c@virginia.edu
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Abstract

Sensitive survey techniques (SSTs) are frequently used to study sensitive behaviors. However, existing strategies for employing SSTs lead to highly variable prevalence estimates and do not permit analysts to address the question of whether the use of an SST is actually necessary. The current article presents a survey questioning strategy and corresponding statistical framework that fills this gap. By jointly analyzing survey responses generated by an SST (the crosswise model) along with direct responses about the sensitive behavior, the article's framework addresses the question of whether the use of an SST is required to study a given sensitive behavior, provides an efficient estimate of the prevalence of the sensitive behavior, and, in its extended form, efficiently estimates how individual characteristics relate to the likelihood of engaging in the behavior. The utility of the approach is demonstrated through an examination of gender differences in proclivities towards corruption in Costa Rica.

Type
Articles
Information
Political Analysis , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , Spring 2016 , pp. 132 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Political Methodology 

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Footnotes

Authors' note: This article was prepared when Ana Corbacho was Sector Economic Advisor and Daniel Gingerich and Virginia Oliveros were visiting scholars at the Inter-American Development Bank. The data, code, and any additional materials required to replicate all analyses in this article are available on the Political Analysis Dataverse of Harvard University's Dataverse Network at: http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/2AIHQF. Supplementary materials for this article are available on the Political Analysis Web site.

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