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How to combine and analyze all the data from diverse sources: a multilevel analysis of institutional trust in the world

Author

Listed:
  • Claire Durand

    (Université de Montréal)

  • Luis Patricio Peña Ibarra

    (Université de Montréal)

  • Nadia Rezgui

    (Université de Montréal)

  • David Wutchiett

    (Université de Montréal)

Abstract

Scholars who want to perform cross-national comparative research rely on data provided by International survey projects, which study the same concepts in varying countries and periods using different question wordings and scales. In this article, we propose a process to combine and analyse the data pertaining to the same concept—institutional trust—when measures and sources differ. We show how we combined 1327 surveys conducted from 1995 to 2017 by 17 survey projects in 142 countries. The database comprises close to 2 M respondents and 21 M answers to trust questions. We use local regression to visualize the trends in trust for different institutions and sources of data in different parts of the world. We complete these analyses with a 4-level longitudinal analysis of repeated measures. These analyses lead to reliably conclude that institutional trust is a property of the institutions themselves and of the context in which they operate since there is much more variance within respondents than between respondents and more variance between countries than over time. This research contributes to the current debates in political trust research. Since the process presented here can be applied to other fields of research, the research also contributes to enhance the possibilities for comparative cross-national analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Claire Durand & Luis Patricio Peña Ibarra & Nadia Rezgui & David Wutchiett, 2022. "How to combine and analyze all the data from diverse sources: a multilevel analysis of institutional trust in the world," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 1755-1797, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:56:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s11135-020-01088-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11135-020-01088-1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. M. Audrey Korsgaard & Jason Kautz & Paul Bliese & Katarzyna Samson & Patrycjusz Kostyszyn, 2018. "Conceptualising time as a level of analysis: New directions in the analysis of trust dynamics," Journal of Trust Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 142-165, July.
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    3. Tineke Jonge & Ruut Veenhoven & Lidia Arends, 2014. "Homogenizing Responses to Different Survey Questions on the Same Topic: Proposal of a Scale Homogenization Method Using a Reference Distribution," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(1), pages 275-300, May.
    4. Rima Wilkes, 2014. "Trust in government: A micro-macro approach," Journal of Trust Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 113-131, October.
    5. Irena Schneider, 2017. "Can We Trust Measures of Political Trust? Assessing Measurement Equivalence in Diverse Regime Types," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 133(3), pages 963-984, September.
    6. T. W. G. Meer & E. Ouattara, 2019. "Putting ‘political’ back in political trust: an IRT test of the unidimensionality and cross-national equivalence of political trust measures," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(6), pages 2983-3002, November.
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