Project List

To date, research about mobile usage to conduct surveys has focused on a comparative analysis with fixed phones (e.g. Keeter et al 2007, Vicente et al 2009, Lynn and Kaminska 2010). Research focused exclusively on mobile phones, specifically in the evaluation of its strengths and weakness as a survey mode is still scarce.  Non-response is one major problem for surveys’ activity. Mobile phone surveys are no exception to this situation. If nonresponse is unaddressed, the resulting damage to data quality may have serious consequences for data analyses underpinning social science research. Mobile phones have specific characteristics that other modes don’t have – they are of personal use, carried at all time to every places. This specificity may affect the likelihood of getting a successful contact when soliciting people to participate. On one side, the time period for contact is large (theoretically, all day) which can improve the likelihood of contact, on the other side, it is easy to reject a call coming from an unknown number. If the proportion of non-responses is high and/or non-respondents are much different from respondents surveys estimates are subject to non-response error.  Paradata are data collected during the survey data collection process (Couper 1998). Examples of paradata are call records, interviewer observations, keystroke data. Paradata can also be obtained by means of questions included on the questionnaire (e.g. the location of the respondent in the time of the interview, whether he/she is alone or accompanied by someone else). Paradata is most used to study unit nonresponse (Steeh et al 2001; De Leeuw and De Heer 2002). Nonresponse research is often limited by the small amount of information available for all sample units. However, call records can guide responsive survey design decisions aimed at reducing nonresponse rates and bias (Groves et al 2009), as they provide important clues on when and how best to contact and to achieve cooperation from...

In this project we explore the links between education and production activity. We want to quantify the phenomena of undereducation, overeducation, and generically the mismatch between education and the labor market in Portugal. We also want to determine its recent evolution and its impact on productivity and productivity gaps between Portugal and other developed economies, specifically within the European Union. Productivity Differences have also been explained by the type of education investment made by each country or group of countries (Aghion and Howitt, 2006; Jones, 2008; Krueger and Kumar, 2004). This issue can be studied in terms of the adequacy of general or vocational education to a country's productive structure or of the adequacy of different fields of study to that productive structure. This motivates us to think that other features of the relationship between education and the productive system can affect productivity differences. The main aim of the project is to identify the role the levels of mismatch have in explaining productivity differences inside and between countries.

Based on a series of rescue archaeology projects carried out in the Alentejo region to mitigate the archaeological impact of a number of public works, an integral project is proposed. The project aims to study the Recent Prehistory funerary practices in the low Alentejo region (Beja district) and build models to the diffusion of knowledge produced over non accessible (or totally dismantled) archaeological heritage, that has been establishing and empirical revolution in the Beja district, in the context of impact assessment projects developed by Redes Electricas Nacionais (REN) and Empresa de Desenvolvimento de Infraestruturas de Alqueva (EDIA). So, using a set of eight archaeological sites of particular scientific relevance, excavated in the context of impact assessment, we intent to address and understand death management practices in their diverse dimensions in the Guadiana basin in low Alentejo, from Late Neolithic to the Bronze Age and the contrasts and articulations established with the funerary solutions known in peripheral areas of Southwest Iberia. Resulting from discoveries and interventions occurred in the context of rescue Archaeology, the majority of the sites was partially or totally destroyed or became inaccessible after the mitigation processes. The project’s implementation strategy will consider a general parallel development of the different dimensions, in order to favor their interactions, but with the necessary adjustments related to specific goals and precedent needs. Archaeological research will address the study of funerary architectures, ritual practices concerning votive deposits, organization of funerary space in articulation with the anthropological approach to human osteology. Geophysical survey will be done in elected sites, for a more global characterization at a site´s scale and archaeometric studies (namely absolute chronology) will be carried out. At the same time, theoretical work and models definition for public access to the produc...