Book Review: Structural Analysis of Discrete Data with Econometric Applications

a comprehensive treatment of response quality (or even response consistency) issues to the extent that it omits issues such as motivation and salience. However, the context and meaning question on which it focuses is a fascinating issue, one that has been underresearched in the past but is receiving increasing attention (for example, the 1982 conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research featured a plenary session talk entitled, "Is Item Order the Quota Sampling of the '80s?"). More important, the question of context and meaning is a central issue in how social research should be practiced. Response inconsistency is a convenient setting in which to study the issue because inconsistency reveals a context-dependent inferential process. However, contextually based meaning applies to other situations where it is not revealed by inconsistency. Demand characteristics, for example, can be viewed as stable results of an inference process in which research participants interpret the research environment and their place in it. This sort of stable context dependence is an important element of some criticisms of laboratory experiments as a vehicle for studying social behavior. The chapters in this book are diverse, well written, and jointly cohesive enough to prompt thinking about issues beyond the immediate subject of response consistency. They also provide theoretical and empirical background varied enough to enrich the thinking of researchers directly concerned with response consistency. For these reasons, the time spent reading this brief (100 pages) book should be time well spent for almost any social researcher.