Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
submittedVersion
Publication Date
6-2021
Abstract
Facing a rapidly ageing population, Singapore is presented with urgent policy challenges. Yet there is very little data on the economic, health and family circumstances of older Singaporeans. In response, the Centre for Research on the Economics of Ageing (CREA) at Singapore Management University has been collecting monthly data on a panel of Singaporeans aged between 50 and 70 years. We detail the methodology by which the Singapore Life Panel® (SLP) was constructed using a population-representative sampling frame from the Singapore Department of Statistics. Contact was made with 25,000 households through postal, phone and in-person canvassing. More than 15,200 respondents from over 11,500 households enrolled in the panel. Comparisons between SLP and official statistics show close matching on age, sex, marital status, ethnicity, education, labor force status, income and expenditure. This suggests that the panel is a representative of Singapore’s elderly population. Monthly surveys continue to be administered over the internet, supplemented by phone and in-person outreach to ensure the panel remains representative and hence reliable for informing policy makers. Response rates are remarkably stable at over 8000 per month. The SLP contains rich data on demographics, health status, socio-economic indicators, contact with government programmes and subjective perceptions and is likely to be a key resource for economic research into ageing in Singapore.
Keywords
Internet survey, probability-based internet panel, survey methodology, sampling techniques, population-representative samples, ageing, Singapore
Discipline
Asian Studies | Behavioral Economics | Gerontology | Health Economics
Research Areas
Applied Microeconomics
Areas of Excellence
Economics of Ageing and Healthcare Management
Publication
Singapore Economic Review
Volume
66
Issue
6
First Page
1759
Last Page
1778
ISSN
0217-5908
Identifier
10.1142/S0217590818420043
Publisher
World Scientific
Embargo Period
2-14-2019
Citation
VAITHIANATHAN, Rhema; HOOL, Bryce; HURD, Michael D.; and ROHWEDDER, Susann.
High-frequency Internet survey of a probability sample of older Singaporeans: The Singapore Life Panel. (2021). Singapore Economic Review. 66, (6), 1759-1778.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/2243
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1142/S0217590818420043
Included in
Asian Studies Commons, Behavioral Economics Commons, Gerontology Commons, Health Economics Commons