Race-of-Interviewer Effects in Telephone Interviews

Previous studies have found a race-of-interviewer effect onsurvey questions dealing with racial issues. This effect hasbeen found in both personal interviews and on questionnairesfilled out in the presence of an interviewer. This study examineswhether a race-of-interviewer effect is also present in telephoneinterviews. The results show that a race-of-interviewer effectdoes occur in telephone interviews on racial questions.     

VOLATILITY AND IRISH EXPORTS

We analyze the impact of volatility per se on real exports for a small open economy concentrating on Irish trade with the United Kingdom and the United States. An important element is that we take account of the time lag between the trade decision and the actual trade or payments taking place by using a flexible lag approach. Rather than adopting a single measure of risk, we adopt a spectrum of risk measures and detail varied size characteristics and statistical properties. We find that the ambiguous results found to date may be due to not taking account of the timing effect, which varies substantially depending on which volatility measure is used. (JEL C32, C51, F14, F31)