Eurobarometer 78.2: European Parliament, Future of Europe and Consumer Behavior in the European Union, November-December 2012 (ICPSR 35251)

Version Date: Oct 9, 2014

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Principal Investigator(s):
European Commission; European Parliament

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR35251.v1

Version V1

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Summary

The Eurobarometer series is a unique cross-national and cross-temporal survey program conducted on behalf of the European Commission. These surveys regularly monitor public opinion in the European Union (EU) member countries and consist of standard modules and special topic modules. The standard modules address attitudes towards European unification, institutions and policies, measurements for general socio-political orientations, as well as respondent and household demographics. The special topic modules address such topics as agriculture, education, natural environment and resources, public health, public safety and crime, and science and technology.

This round of Eurobarometer surveys covers the following special topics: (1) Future of Europe, and (2) Consumer behavior in the European Union. In regard to the future of Europe, opinions were collected on the expected quality of life for future generations, main challenges for the EU to face in the future, predictions on whether EU society will place more importance on solidarity or individualism and predictions of whether the EU will be a leading diplomatic power. In regard to consumer behavior, respondents were asked if they had a legitimate cause for complaint during a transaction, what type of action was taken during the interaction, court ruling where a business was taken to court, willingness to go to court, reasons to go to court in another EU member state, and European small claims procedure. Additional information includes respondents' sources of political knowledge and to what extent they feel well informed on political matters.

Demographic and other background information collected includes age, gender, nationality, marital status and parental relations, occupation, age when stopped full-time education, household composition, ownership of a fixed or a mobile telephone and other durable goods, difficulties in paying bills, level in society, and Internet use. In addition, country-specific data includes type and size of locality, region of residence, and language of interview (select countries).

Citation

European Commission, and European Parliament. Eurobarometer 78.2: European Parliament, Future of Europe and Consumer Behavior in the European Union, November-December 2012. GESIS [distributor], Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2014-10-09. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR35251.v1

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Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

country

Distributor(s)

GESIS, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2012-11-17 -- 2012-12-02

Date of Collection

2012-11-17 -- 2012-12-02

Data Collection Notes

  1. The original data collection was carried out by TNS Opinion and Social on request of the European commission between November 17, and December 2, 2012.

  2. Question module QA on the FUTURE OF EUROPE almost completely replicates the corresponding module (QA) in Eurobarometer 76.4 (ICPSR 34732) .

  3. Module QB was not surveyed in Denmark.

  4. The Codebook and setup files for this collection contain characters with diacritical marks used in many European languages.

  5. At present the special topic "European Parliament" is under embargo. Variables for those questions under embargo are not included in this version of the collection. Please review the ICPSR/GESIS Cooperative Agreement and Embargo Provisions" section in the ICPSR codebook.

  6. Access to GESIS data and documentation, including the GESIS DOI, for Eurobarometer 78.2 can be found through the GESIS Web site. Additional information on the Eurobarometer Survey Series and the Eurobarometer data can be found at the GESIS Eurobarometer Web site and ZACAT, respectively.

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Sample

The basic sample design applied in all states is a multi-stage, random (probability) one. In each country, a number of sampling points was drawn with the probability proportional to population size (for a total coverage of the country) and to population density. In order to do so, the sampling points were drawn systematically from each of the "administrative regional units", after stratification by individual unit and type of area. They thus represent the whole territory of the countries surveyed according to the EUROSTAT NUTS II (or equivalent) and according to the distribution of the resident population of the respective nationalities in terms of metropolitan, urban and rural areas. In each of the selected sampling points, a starting address was drawn, at random (following the "closest birthday rule"). All interviews were conducted face-to-face in the people's homes and in the appropriate national language. CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interview) was used in those countries where this technique was available. Please refer to the Technical Specifications section within the ICPSR Codebook for additional sampling information.

Universe

In all, Eurobarometer 78.2 interviewed 27,739 citizens in the 28 countries of the European Union after the 2004/2007 enlargement (i.e. including the Accession Countries Romania, Bulgaria and including the candidate country, Croatia). All respondents were residents in the respective country, nationals and non-national but EU-Citizens, and aged 15 and over. Respondents were expected to have sufficient command of the respective national languages to answer the questionnaire.

Unit(s) of Observation

individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

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Original Release Date

2014-10-09

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • European Commission, and European Parliament. Eurobarometer 78.2: European Parliament, Future of Europe and Consumer Behavior in the European Union, November-December 2012. ICPSR35251-v1. Cologne, Germany: GESIS/Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributors], 2014-10-09. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR35251.v1

2014-10-09 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Weight

For each country, a comparison between the sample and the universe was carried out. The Universe description was derived from Eurostat population data or from national statistics offices. For all countries surveyed, a national weighting procedure, using marginal and intercellular weighting, was carried out based on this Universe description. In all countries, gender, age, region and size of locality were introduced in the iteration procedure. For international weighting (i.e. EU averages), TNS Opinion and Social applies the official population figures as provided by EUROSTAT or national statistic offices. Please refer to the ICPSR Codebook for additional weighting information.

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Notes