How few countries will do? Comparative survey analysis from a Bayesian perspective

Meuleman and Billiet (2009) have carried out a simulation study aimed at the question how many countries are needed for accurate multilevel SEM estimation in comparative studies. The authors concluded that a sample of 50 to 100 countries is needed for accurate estimation. Recently, Bayesian estimati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSurvey research methods Vol. 6; no. 2; pp. 87 - 93
Main Author Hox, Joop
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published European Survey Research Association 01.01.2012
Subjects
Bayesian estimation
cross-national research
Datendokumentation
Multilevel SEM
sample size
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Summary:Meuleman and Billiet (2009) have carried out a simulation study aimed at the question how many countries are needed for accurate multilevel SEM estimation in comparative studies. The authors concluded that a sample of 50 to 100 countries is needed for accurate estimation. Recently, Bayesian estimation methods have been introduced in structural equation modeling which should work well with much lower sample sizes. The current study reanalyzes the simulation of Meuleman and Billiet using Bayesian estimation to find the lowest number of countries needed when conducting multilevel SEM. The main result of our simulations is that a sample of about 20 countries is sufficient for accurate Bayesian estimation, which makes multilevel SEM practicable for the number of countries commonly available in large scale comparative surveys.
ISSN:1864-3361
1864-3361
DOI:10.18148/srm/2012.v6i2.5033