DOI: 10.3886/icpsr34350.v1
title: South Korean Local Election Panel Study: Regional Three Waves, 2010
title: Version 1

description: The South Korean Local Election Panel Study of 2010 examined vote determinants of Korean voters and the causes and dynamics of changes in voter preferences. This study presents the results of five regions in South Korea: Chungnam, Gyeonggi, Gyeongnam, Jeonbuk, and Seoul. The survey was conducted in three waves from May to June 2010 with a large-scale panel of 600 respondents who represented the five regions' gender, age, and education proportions. The study analyzed factors that influence the formation and change of voter preferences through three broad theoretical frameworks: (1) The sociological model that explains voter preference as a reflection of major social fragmentation (education, gender, income, religion, region, etc.); (2) The psychological model of the Michigan School that explains voter preference formation and change as activation of party identification in United States or Western elections, and regional identification in Korea as a proxy; (3) The rational voter model that posits that individuals, after calculating their own interests, support candidates or parties that possess the policies and ideology to maximize those interests. The South Korean Election Panel studies utilize "tracking core questions": questions that repeatedly track the change in vote determinants. These questions focus on attitudes on candidate factors, political party factors, election campaigns, issues, and policies. In this study, respondents were asked about the local election, their voting behavior, attitudes about political parties, which candidate they voted for in the 2006, 2007, and 2008 elections, exposure to media, major issues in the country, and the Lee Myung-bak administration. Economic questions asked about the living conditions of the respondent's residing city, how this compared to other cities, the respondent's household condition, and the economic situation of the country. Questions were also asked about the performance of President Lee Myung-bak and the respondent's local Governor/Mayor. Demographic variables include gender, age, occupation, religion, level of education, perceived social class, home ownership, and income.
description: The data are not weighted. There is one weight variable for Wave 1: WT, one for Wave 2: WT2, and one for Wave 3: WT3.
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..
description: Response Rates: The final panel retention rate was over 60 percent.
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Wave 1 Chungnam 
 DS2: Wave 1 Gyeonggi 
 DS3: Wave 1 Gyeongnam 
 DS4: Wave 1 Jeonbuk 
 DS5: Wave 1 Seoul 
 DS6: Wave 2 Chungnam 
 DS7: Wave 2 Gyeonggi 
 DS8: Wave 2 Gyeongnam 
 DS9: Wave 2 Jeonbuk 
 DS10: Wave 2 Seoul 
 DS11: Wave 3 Chungnam 
 DS12: Wave 3 Gyeonggi 
 DS13: Wave 3 Gyeongnam 
 DS14: Wave 3 Jeonbuk 
 DS15: Wave 3 Seoul
description: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) 
Whenever possible, the questionnaire used the wording of international surveys, such as the ANES questionnaire, to allow international comparisons. When no appropriate questions existed, new question items were developed.
 For additional information on the South Korean Election studies please visit the East Asia Institute Web site.
description: All individuals over the age of 19 who were eligible to vote in South Korea. Smallest Geographic Unit: county
description: The panel study sample was selected using stratified random sampling in each region. The data for setting the quotas were determined from the Resident Registration data as of December 31, 2009, published by the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, with the quotas set according to demographic proportions by age, by gender, and by region. The sample was allocated by crossing the proportions of each region (the 16 metropolitan self-governing bodies), gender (male/female), and age group (29 years of age and under, 30-39 years of age, 40-49 years of age, 50 years of age and over). The quotas were applied separately to each sample group from the master sample, which is specially gathered and operated by the Hankook Research Company and from the newly selected sample.