REJOINDER
| Published date | 01 June 1969 |
| Date | 01 June 1969 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1969.tb00033.x |
| Author | Hilde Behrend |
REJOINDER
HILDE
BEHREND
I
WAS
interested to learn that my articles had sparked
off
discussion
and fieldwork at another university and to see that the St. Andrews
respondents, just like the respondents in my
own
enquiries, had only
a
vague and inaccurate' knowledge
of
certain prices.
If
however one sets
out,
as Begg and Stewart do, to evaluate and
test someone else's research, it is important to obtain as much informa-
tion as possible about it, and to study the details carefully. With
insufficient information there is
a
danger that criticisms may be ill-
founded and that attempts to develop new and better research methods
lag behind the work that
is
being replicated rather than help to
advance it. For example, my
own
work has not stood still. Financial
support for the formation of a research team and for the expenses
of two national surveys has enabled me to build on the insights and
experience gained in over three years of preparatory work, and to
conduct in February, 1966,
a
first
national random sample survey
into attitudes to inflation covering just under
1,500
respondents, and
in
December, 1966,
a
second national random sample survey into
attitudes to the prices and incomes standstill. This work provides
answersZ to many of the issues raised by Begg and Stewart. However,
the following points about my research are worth stressing here.
Our recent survey work illustrates the importance we place
on
the use of large national random samples for the measurement of
the distribution
of
opinions among the general public. However, while
accepting that it
is
important to use random samples,
I
consider that
it is not always necessary or practicable to do
so.
I
justify the pro-
cedures
I
described in my earlier papers on the grounds that the
work was exploratory
in
nature and had to be camed out within
constraints imposed by scarcity of time and finance. The aim was
to
gain insights into various aspects
of
inflation, to test different ways
For example, for
milk
for which the standard price increased to IOd.
a
pint in
April,
1967, the mean price quoted by Begg and Stewart for the general
public is given as 11.16d. with a standard deviation of 5.93d.
a
See the reports already published,
viz.
A
National
Survey
of
Attitudes
to
Inflation
and
Incomes Policy,
by Hilde Behrend, Harriet Lynch and Jean
Davies, Occasional Papers in Social and Economic Administration
No.
7.
Edutext Publications, October, 1966, and
Incomes Policy
and
the
Individual,
by Hilde Behrend, Harriet Lynch, Howard Thomas and Jean Davies. Oliver
&
Boyd, October, 1967.
7
97
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