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Measuring Value Change in Western Industrialized Societies: The Impact of Unemployment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Harold D. Clarke  and
Nitish Dutt
Harold D. Clarke
Affiliation:
University of North Texas
Nitish Dutt
Affiliation:
Duke University
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Abstract

During the past two decades a four-item battery administered in biannual Euro-Barometer surveys has been used to measure changing value priorities in Western European countries. We provide evidence that the measure is seriously flawed. Pooled cross-sectional time series analyses for the 1976–86 period reveal that the Euro-Barometer postmaterialist-materialist value index and two of its components are very sensitive to short-term changes in economic conditions, and that the failure to include a statement about unemployment in the four-item values battery accounts for much of the apparent growth of postmaterialist values in several countries after 1980. The aggregate-level findings are buttressed by analyses of panel data from three countries.

Type
Research Notes
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 85 , Issue 3 , September 1991 , pp. 905 - 920
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1991

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