New Developments and Challenges in Measuring Socioeconomic Status |
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| Coordinator 1 | Professor Natalja Menold (Technische Universität Dresden) |
| Coordinator 2 | Mrs Luise Richter (Technische Universität Dresden) |
| Coordinator 3 | Mr Roberto Briceno-Rosas (GESIS) |
Socioeconomic status (SES) is a relevant measure in social science research and beyond, serving as fundamental information for public opinion, quality of life, social mobility, health and inequality research. Crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, or energy and economic crises, can impact individuals’ educational paths, labor force biographies, and wages and sources of revenue. The macro-level impact of crises on societies can also impact the frame of reference for evaluating the SES. Hence, an inspection of the current measurement design and quality can be deemed necessary. Typically, socioeconomic status is measured by a combination of information on respondents’ education, occupation and income, which are indicators of the so-called objective measure of SES. In addition, subjective measures of the SES, which aim to capture respondents’ evaluation of their position in society has been commonly used. The operationalization of indicators for both objective and subjective SES is largely heterogeneous.
This session offers the opportunity to discuss new developments and challenges of the measurement of SES in general and in times of crises in particular. The papers address issues like the operationalization of different SES indicators (in national and cross-cultural context), correlations among objective and subjective measures, their economic measurement and data analysis, measurement quality, and potential biases (like social desirability bias).