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Making Better Use of Business Survey Data: Thoughts on Overcoming the Anchoring and Nested Data Problems in Interpreting Business Survey Results
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Edmund Malesky
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useful distinctions: the anchoring problem inherent in the BEEPS survey design and a related dilemma that businesses are nested within provinces, making it difficult to ascertain in single-level regression analysis whether evaluations of governance are determined by firm level or provincial level characteristics. Over the course of this paper, I will both explore and provide some solutions that may assist other users of business survey data such as the BEEPS.
The paper is organized as follows. First, I briefly describe my dissertation theory, paying special attention to how I employ the Vietnam Business Environment Survey (VBES) in my research. Secondly, I describe the methodology of the survey and some other limitations of the analysis. Third, I describe how the anchoring problem inhibited useful comparisons across provinces and the changes I made for subsequent surveys (being administered this week by The Asia Foundation and Vietnam Chamber of Commerce) that correct for this problem. Fourth, I explore the problem of nested data and illustrate by way of my dissertation example why a hierarchical linear model (commonly used in psychology and public health) is most appropriate for making sense of business survey designs.
1. My Dissertation and BEEPS-Type Data.John Hewko, an international lawyer in Russia, recently thundered in the East European Constitutional Review that, “Most foreign investors who have committed resources to a country have probably accepted the fact that in, general terms, the legislative and legal systems are inadequate. They are also prepared to accept that any given piece of legislation is unlikely to conform to an ideal standard. The immediate focus of committed investors tends to center around a succinct list of specific complaints about that one piece of legislation or regulation that, if rectified, would greatly facilitate the success and continued viability of their investment….In light of the lessons learned from past efforts, a fundamental shift is required in the manner in which the international development community views certain aspects of legal reform in post communist countries…”
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Indeed, scholars have tended to view reform packages in transition countries as fait accompli, while both foreign investors and governments have a much more piecemeal notion of the reform process and ascribe a much larger role to foreign investors in altering or pushing for particular reform strategies. Investors as gadflies and “pushers” of economic reform has been overlooked in our present literature of economic transition, which prefers to emphasize investors being pulled into transition states by the lure of positive reforms.
In my dissertation, I take an initial step toward a response to Hewko’s challenge by looking at the role of foreign direct investment in promoting economic institutional reform in transition states. My approach differs from Hewko, as I believe that the voice of investors is limited without domestic agency in the form of subnational leaders, who simultaneously benefit and are
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Hewko, John, 2003. “Foreign Direct Investment in Transitional Economies: Does the Rule of Law Matter?” East European
Constitutional Review, Fall 2002/Winter 2003, 71-79.
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| | Authors: Malesky, Edmund. |
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Edmund Malesky
3
useful distinctions: the anchoring problem inherent in the BEEPS survey design and a related
dilemma that businesses are nested within provinces, making it difficult to ascertain in single-
level regression analysis whether evaluations of governance are determined by firm level or
provincial level characteristics. Over the course of this paper, I will both explore and provide
some solutions that may assist other users of business survey data such as the BEEPS.
The paper is organized as follows. First, I briefly describe my dissertation theory, paying special
attention to how I employ the Vietnam Business Environment Survey (VBES) in my research.
Secondly, I describe the methodology of the survey and some other limitations of the analysis.
Third, I describe how the anchoring problem inhibited useful comparisons across provinces and
the changes I made for subsequent surveys (being administered this week by The Asia
Foundation and Vietnam Chamber of Commerce) that correct for this problem. Fourth, I explore
the problem of nested data and illustrate by way of my dissertation example why a hierarchical
linear model (commonly used in psychology and public health) is most appropriate for making
sense of business survey designs.
1. My Dissertation and BEEPS-Type Data.
John Hewko, an international lawyer in Russia, recently thundered in the East European
Constitutional Review that, “Most foreign investors who have committed resources to a country
have probably accepted the fact that in, general terms, the legislative and legal systems are
inadequate. They are also prepared to accept that any given piece of legislation is unlikely to
conform to an ideal standard. The immediate focus of committed investors tends to center
around a succinct list of specific complaints about that one piece of legislation or regulation that,
if rectified, would greatly facilitate the success and continued viability of their investment….In
light of the lessons learned from past efforts, a fundamental shift is required in the manner in
which the international development community views certain aspects of legal reform in post
communist countries…”
5
Indeed, scholars have tended to view reform packages in transition countries as fait accompli,
while both foreign investors and governments have a much more piecemeal notion of the reform
process and ascribe a much larger role to foreign investors in altering or pushing for particular
reform strategies. Investors as gadflies and “pushers” of economic reform has been overlooked
in our present literature of economic transition, which prefers to emphasize investors being
pulled into transition states by the lure of positive reforms.
In my dissertation, I take an initial step toward a response to Hewko’s challenge by looking at
the role of foreign direct investment in promoting economic institutional reform in transition
states. My approach differs from Hewko, as I believe that the voice of investors is limited
without domestic agency in the form of subnational leaders, who simultaneously benefit and are
5
Hewko, John, 2003. “Foreign Direct Investment in Transitional Economies: Does the Rule of Law Matter?” East European
Constitutional Review, Fall 2002/Winter 2003, 71-79.
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