US Decennial Census return rates: the role of social capital
International Journal of Social Economics
ISSN: 0306-8293
Article publication date: 7 January 2019
Issue publication date: 1 May 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess whether additional information about a community’s level of social capital can help to better predict a return rate from that area, in order to better target resources to improve mail-in responses.
Design/methodology/approach
Two-sample two-stage least squares is used to apply determinants of six different measures of social capital from the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey to observations in the Decennial Census (DC) which are then aggregated to the census tract level. The probability of a census tract having a high level of each social capital measure is estimated. Multivariate regression is used to identify the importance of high community social capital for predicting census mail-in return rates.
Findings
The analysis reveals that a higher level of trust contributes the most to increasing return rates and a high level of political activism decreases return rates. Additionally, higher levels of sociability contribute negatively to DC return rates, which is consistent with sociability being linked to a more insular (i.e. family and friends) focus.
Practical implications
While contributing statistically significantly to the predictability of census tract response rates, the cost of acquiring measures of social capital for each census tract may not to be viewed worth the gain in predictive power.
Social implications
Higher levels of trust contribute positively to survey participation, suggesting that any social, economic or political environment that diminishes trust will undercut civic engagement. Political activism and (insular) sociability decrease participation.
Originality/value
This paper combines non-public and public data to obtain measures of social capital along more dimensions than are typically studied, and finds that not all types of social capital are related to feelings of social integration in the same way.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author of this paper has not made the research data set openly available. Any enquiries regarding the data set can be directed to the author. The author has no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper. Any opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the US Census Bureau, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta or the Federal Reserve System. All results have been reviewed to ensure that no confidential information is disclosed. Research assistance from Augustine Denteh and Tom Zichong Qu is greatly appreciated. Assistance of Anil Rupasingha in constructing distance weighted census tract characteristics is also gratefully acknowledged, as well as comments from Ashley Amaya.
Citation
Hotchkiss, J.L. (2019), "US Decennial Census return rates: the role of social capital", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 46 No. 5, pp. 648-668. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-07-2018-0377
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited