Measuring the unmeasurable? Systematic evidence on scale transformations in subjective survey data

Working paper

Ordered response scales are ubiquitous in economics, but their interpretation rests on an untested assumption: that numerical labels reflect equal psychological intervals. We develop a framework to quantify how relaxing this assumption affects empirical results. Using new experimental evidence, we show that scale use is only mildly nonlinear. Replicating over 40,000 estimates from more than 80 papers, we find that coefficient signs and significance are largely robust, but relative magnitudes are not. Even modest non-linearities generate substantial variation in implied trade-offs.

Authors: Kaiser, C; Lepinteur, A

• Publication status: Published
• Publisher: Wellbeing Research Centre
• Series: Wellbeing Research Centre Working Paper
• Place of publication: Oxford
• Publication date: 2025-09-01
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-vyq7o5eqb
• Paper number: 2503
• Language: English
• Keywords: Likert scales; wellbeing; life satisfaction; survey methods; ordinal scales