SHARE Compliance Profiles - Wave 4

Abstract

The SHARE Compliance Profiles consist of a set of quality control indicators based on the SHARE Survey Specifications. All participating countries are evaluated on these indicators uniformly, although the environments for conducting the survey differ among European countries. As an ex-ante harmonized endeavor like SHARE cannot afford to set country-specific standards on what qualifies as good performance the combination of ex-ante Survey Specifications and ex-post Compliance Profiles levels the playing field for all participating countries and allows for a fair comparison of national survey quality. This document reports how SHARE quality standards were adhered to in Wave 4. Section 2 lists the survey agencies involved in Wave 4. Section 3 describes the data input for this evaluation. Section 4 reports the results in form of the various indicators. It is important to note that Wave 4 of SHARE was a difficult wave since it was the first wave under the new decentralized funding scheme. As opposed to the three earlier waves, survey operations in each country were financed nationally and not centrally by the EU Commission. This has put the ex-ante harmonization approach under additional pressure, not the least due to the difficulties of some countries to provide the necessary funds in time. The compliance profiles in this report therefore do not only reflect differences in survey agency performance but also the pressures of time and money in the SHARE member countries.