Category: Research and Polls

Why Cataloguing Thousands of Essays Still Doesn’t Tell You Whether Student Writing Has Improved

According to a recent article in Canada’s largest national newspaper, students and young adults have not become worse writers since the advent of new(ish) technologies like text messaging, Twitter, and Facebook. If anything, says the article, writers have become better over time in part thanks to new opportunities to write and create with these new …

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Do “Presidential Names” Become More Popular?

An event study captures the impact of a certain event(s) on a marketplace. This technique is most commonly used in the context of the stock market, when analysts study the effects of certain events on stock prices. Analysts look at share prices prior to the event of interest (e.g. a stock split, CEO resignation, etc.) …

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Questions of Fraud and Gender

Are women being unfairly prevented from engaging in corporate fraud?  That seems to the be conclusion espoused by sociologist Darrell J. Steffensmeier of Pennsylvania State University in his recent study published in the journal American Sociological Review: “Typically, women were not part of'[fraud] conspiracy groups. When women were involved, they had more minor roles and made less profit …

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Best Places to Work in Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Business Journal (LABJ) just published its list of the best companies to work for in Los Angeles for 2013.  The LABJ ranks the top 100 companies in Los Angeles, and segregates the list into Large (250+ employees), Medium (50-249 employees) and Small (15-49 employees) companies. The best places to work in Los …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/08/best-places-to-work-in-los-angeles/

Beer Companies Are Losing Ground, Especially With Younger Consumers

What alcoholic beverage do people like to drink?  Well Gallup conducted its annual Consumption Habits poll and the verdict is in.  Jeffrey M. Jones summarizes the survey results on behalf of Gallup (see here). A majority of American’s drink alcoholic beverages, with 63% percent of survey respondents since 1939 historically indicating that they drink occasionally.  …

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The Baby Name “Market” is becoming more Fragmented

According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), there have been over 91,000 different names given to babies since 1880 in the US. We can think of the process of naming children as a market activity. The “market” consists of parents (i.e. consumers) who select a name (i.e. product) from a wide assortment of options. For …

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What is the Most Unisex Name in US History?

Names like Grant or Greg are thoroughly associated with males, while Isabelle and Antoinette are clearly associated with females. Other names, however, are significantly more androgynous. If you were to receive an email from an unknown Sam, Morgan, or Jamie, you wouldn’t be sure of the sender’s gender. What makes a name clearly suitable for …

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Consumer Confidence Fueling Real Estate Market

Even with the recent beating homeowners took during the last real estate downturn, Americans still have confidence in the real estate market.  It appears that homeownership is still a goal for many Americans.  DSNews.com reported the results of the 2013 National Pulse Survey from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).  Eight out of ten people …

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When Survey Results Change Drastically, You May Want to Check Your Work

When survey results change drastically from one period to the next the results are often chalked up to actual changes within the population that the survey was intended to measure. However, the possibility also exists that not all changes correspond to true changes in the underlying population. Pollsters rarely survey the same respondents from period …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/07/when-survey-results-change-drastically-you-may-want-to-check-your-work/

More Than 10% of US Adults Were Victims of Fraud in 2011

A recent report by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) entitled “Consumer Fraud in the United States, 2011: The Third FTC Survey” provides some interesting statistics on the prevalence of fraud.  The underlying consumer surveys revealed that during 2011 an estimated 10.8 % of U.S. adults (25.6 million people) were a victim of one or more of an estimated total …

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