Dr. Alexander Wenz

Alexander Wenz
Research Fellow (Data and Methods Unit)
Project Director
alexander.wenz [at] mzes.uni-mannheim.de
Phone: 
+49-621-181-2019
Fax: 
+49-621-181-2866
Phone: 
+49-621-181-2804
Postal Address
University of Mannheim, MZES
68131  Mannheim
Germany
Visiting Address
University of Mannheim, MZES
A5, 6
Building A
Room:A 244
68159  Mannheim

Profile/Career

Alexander Wenz is a Research Fellow in the Data and Methods Unit at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) at the University of Mannheim. He is also a Research Associate at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex and serves as Committee Member of the European Survey Research Association (ESRA).

He received his PhD in Survey Methodology from the University of Essex in 2018 and his BA in Politics and Public Administration from the University of Konstanz in 2014. His research focuses on the quality of novel methods of data collection, including mobile web surveys, smartphone apps, wearable sensors, and digital behavioral data.

In the Data and Methods Unit, he offers methodological support in the following areas:

  • Survey design, survey data collection, and survey data analysis
  • Research ethics and data protection for surveys conducted at the MZES

Projects

A2 Dimensions of Societal Integration: Social Stratification and Social Inequalities

A2.2112
Understanding, Measuring, and Alleviating Inequalities in Digital Technology Use

B1 Conditions of Democratic Governance: Behaviour and Orientations of Citizens

B1.2301
Acceptance of Smartphone Technologies for Social Science Data Collection

Publications

Journal Articles

Wenz, Alexander, Florian Keusch and Ruben L. Bach (In Press): Measuring smartphone use: Survey versus digital behavioral data. Social Science Computer Review, (publ. online before print). more
Page, Elina, Christopher Antoun, Jeffrey Gonzalez, Linda Kantor, Florian Keusch, Lauren Miller and Alexander Wenz (2023): Editorial: Recent Advances in Survey Methods for Collecting Food Data. Survey Methods: Insights from the Field, 1, issue 3 (Special Issue on Food Acquisition Research and Methods), pp. 1-8. more
Wenz, Alexander, and Florian Keusch (2023): Increasing the acceptance of smartphone-based data collection. Public Opinion Quarterly, 87, issue 2, pp. 357-388. more
Wenz, Alexander, and Florian Keusch (2023): The second-level smartphone divide: A typology of smartphone use based on frequency of use, skills, and types of activities. Mobile Media & Communication, 11, issue 3, pp. 459-483. more
Cornesse, Carina, Ulrich Krieger, Marie-Lou Sohnius, Marina Fikel, Sabine Friedel, Tobias Rettig, Alexander Wenz, Sebastian Juhl, Roni Lehrer, Katja Möhring, Elias Naumann, Maximiliane Reifenscheid and Annelies G. Blom (2022): From German Internet Panel to Mannheim Corona Study: Adaptable probability-based online panel infrastructures during the pandemic. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A, Statistics in Society, 185, issue 3, pp. 773-797. more
Jäckle, Annette, Alexander Wenz, Jonathan Burton and Mick P. Couper (2022): Increasing participation in a mobile app study: The effects of a sequential mixed-mode design and in-interview invitation. Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, 10, issue 4, pp. 898–922. more
Keusch, Florian, Alexander Wenz and Frederick G. Conrad (2022): Do you have your smartphone with you? Behavioral barriers for measuring everyday activities with smartphone sensors. Computers in Human Behavior, 127, issue February 2022, (article no. 107054). more
Wenz, Alexander, Annette Jäckle, Jonathan Burton and Mick P. Couper (2022): The effects of personalized feedback on participation and reporting in mobile app data collection. Social Science Computer Review, 40, issue 1, pp. 165–178. more
Baghal, Tarek, Alexander Wenz, Luke Sloan and Curtis Jessop (2021): Linking Twitter and survey data: Asymmetry in quantity and its impact. EPJ Data Science, 10, (article no. 32). more
Blom, Annelies G., Alexander Wenz, Carina Cornesse, Tobias Rettig, Marina Fikel, Sabine Friedel, Katja Möhring, Elias Naumann, Maximiliane Reifenscheid and Ulrich Krieger (2021): Barriers to the Large-Scale Adoption of the COVID-19 Contact-Tracing App in Germany: Survey Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23, issue 3, (article no. e23362). more
Mata, Jutta, Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Katja Möhring, Ulrich Krieger, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel, Carina Cornesse, Annelies G. Blom and Elias Naumann (2021): Health behaviors and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal population-based survey in Germany. Social Science & Medicine, 287, issue October 2021, (article no. 114333). more
Möhring, Katja, Elias Naumann, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Ulrich Krieger, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel, Carina Cornesse and Annelies G. Blom (2021): The COVID-19 pandemic and subjective well-being: longitudinal evidence on satisfaction with work and family. European Societies, 23, issue suppl. 1, pp. S601-S617. more
Wenz, Alexander (2021): Do distractions during web survey completion affect data quality? Findings from a laboratory experiment. Social Science Computer Review, 39, issue 1, pp. 148-161. more
Wenz, Alexander, Tarek Baghal and Alessandra Gaia (2021): Language proficiency among respondents: Implications for data quality in a longitudinal face-to-face survey. Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, 9, issue 1, pp. 73-93. more
Bach, Ruben L., and Alexander Wenz (2020): Studying health-related internet and mobile device use using web logs and smartphone records. PLOS ONE, 15, issue 6, (article no. e0234663). more
Blom, Annelies G., Carina Cornesse, Sabine Friedel, Ulrich Krieger, Marina Fikel, Tobias Rettig, Alexander Wenz, Sebastian Juhl, Roni Lehrer, Katja Möhring, Elias Naumann and Maximiliane Reifenscheid (2020): High Frequency and High Quality Survey Data Collection: The Mannheim Corona Study. Survey Research Methods, 14, issue 2, pp. 171-178. more
Blom, Annelies G., Carina Cornesse, Sabine Friedel, Ulrich Krieger, Marina Fikel, Tobias Rettig, Alexander Wenz, Sebastian Juhl, Roni Lehrer, Katja Möhring, Elias Naumann and Maximiliane Reifenscheid (2020): High-Frequency and High-Quality Survey Data Collection: The Mannheim Corona Study. Survey Research Methods, 14, issue 2, pp. 171-178. more
Blom, Annelies G., Carina Cornesse, Joseph W. Sakshaug and Alexander Wenz (2020): Recent advances in probability-based and nonprobability survey research. Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, 8, issue 1, pp. 2-3. more
Cornesse, Carina, Annelies G. Blom, David Dutwin, Jon A. Krosnick, Edith de Leeuw, Stéphane Legleye, Josh Pasek, Darren Pennay, Benjamin Phillips, Joseph W. Sakshaug, Bella Struminskaya and Alexander Wenz (2020): A Review of Conceptual Approaches and Empirical Evidence on Probability and Nonprobability Sample Survey Research. Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, 8, issue 1, pp. 4-36. more
Naumann, Elias, Katja Möhring, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Roni Lehrer, Ulrich Krieger, Sebastian Juhl, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel, Carina Cornesse and Annelies G. Blom (2020): COVID-19 policies in Germany and their social, political, and psychological consequences. European Policy Analysis, 6, issue 2, pp. 191-202. more
Naumann, Elias, Katja Möhring, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Roni Lehrer, Ulrich Krieger, Sebastian Juhl, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel, Carina Cornesse and Annelies G. Blom (2020): COVID‐19 Policies in Germany and their Social, Political, and Psychological Consequences. European Policy Analysis, 6, issue 2, pp. 191-202. more
Wenz, Alexander, Annette Jäckle and Mick P. Couper (2019): Willingness to use mobile technologies for data collection in a probability household panel. Survey Research Methods, 13, issue 1, pp. 1-22. more
Allum, Nick, Frederick Conrad and Alexander Wenz (2018): Consequences of mid-stream mode-switching in a panel survey. Survey Research Methods, 12, issue 1, pp. 43-58. more
Matthews, Peter, Emily Bell and Alexander Wenz (2017): Surveying young people in the smartphone age. Social Research Practice, 5, pp. 2-11. more

Book Chapters

Juhl, Sebastian, Roni Lehrer, Annelies G. Blom, Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Ulrich Krieger, Marina Fikel, Carina Cornesse, Elias Naumann, Katja Möhring and Maximiliane Reifenscheid (2022): Preferences for centralized decision-making in times of crisis: the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Pp. 1–27 in: Jan Sauermann, Markus Tepe, Marc Debus (Eds.) Jahrbuch für Handlungs-und Entscheidungstheorie: Band 12. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. more
Wenz, Alexander (2021): Completing web surveys on mobile devices: Does screen size affect data quality?. Pp. 101-121 in: Tobias Wolbring, Heinz Leitgöb, Frank Faulbaum (Eds.) Sozialwissenschaftliche Datenerhebung im digitalen Zeitalter. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. more

Papers / Reports

von der Heyde, Leah, Anna-Carolina Haensch and Alexander Wenz (2023): Assessing bias in LLM-generated synthetic datasets: The case of German voter behavior. [SocArXiv preprint] more
von der Heyde, Leah, Anna-Carolina Haensch and Alexander Wenz (2023): Vox Populi, vox AI? Using language models to estimate German public opinion. [SocArXiv preprint] more
Wenz, Alexander, Annette Jäckle, Jonathan Burton, Mick P. Couper and Brendan Read (2023): Quality of expenditure data collected with a mobile receipt scanning app in a probability household panel. Colchester [Understanding Society Working Paper; 2023-02] more
Wenz, Alexander, and Florian Keusch (2021): The second-level smartphone divide: A typology of smartphone usage based on frequency of use, skills, and types of activities. Ithaca, NY [arXiv preprint] more
Blom, Annelies G., Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Elias Naumann, Katja Möhring, Roni Lehrer, Ulrich Krieger, Sebastian Juhl, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel and Carina Cornesse (2020): Die Mannheimer Corona-Studie: Das Leben in Deutschland im Ausnahmezustand; Bericht zur Lage vom 20. März bis 29. April 2020. Mannheim more
Blom, Annelies G., Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Elias Naumann, Katja Möhring, Roni Lehrer, Ulrich Krieger, Sebastian Juhl, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel, Carina Cornesse and Julian Axenfeld (2020): Die Mannheimer Corona-Studie: Das Leben in Deutschland im Ausnahmezustand; Bericht zur Lage vom 20. März bis 31. März 2020. Mannheim more
Blom, Annelies G., Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Elias Naumann, Katja Möhring, Roni Lehrer, Ulrich Krieger, Sebastian Juhl, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel and Carina Cornesse (2020): The Mannheim Corona Study: Life in Germany in a State of Emergency; Report for March 20 to July 09, 2020. Mannheim more
Blom, Annelies G., Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Elias Naumann, Katja Möhring, Roni Lehrer, Ulrich Krieger, Sebastian Juhl, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel and Carina Cornesse (2020): The Mannheim Corona Study: Life in Germany in a State of Emergency; Report for March 20 to June 30, 2020. Mannheim more
Blom, Annelies G., Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Elias Naumann, Katja Möhring, Roni Lehrer, Ulrich Krieger, Sebastian Juhl, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel and Carina Cornesse (2020): The Mannheim Corona Study: Life in Germany in a State of Emergency; Report for March 20 to May 28, 2020. Mannheim more
Juhl, Sebastian, Roni Lehrer, Annelies G. Blom, Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Elias Naumann, Katja Möhring, Ulrich Krieger, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel and Carina Cornesse (2020): Die Mannheimer Corona-Studie: Demokratische Kontrolle in der Corona-Krise. Mannheim more
Juhl, Sebastian, Roni Lehrer, Annelies G. Blom, Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Elias Naumann, Katja Möhring, Ulrich Krieger, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel and Carina Cornesse (2020): Die Mannheimer Corona-Studie: Gesellschaftliche Akzeptanz politischer Maßnahmen und befürchtete Konsequenzen für die Wirtschaft. Mannheim more
Lehrer, Roni, Sebastian Juhl, Annelies G. Blom, Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Elias Naumann, Katja Möhring, Ulrich Krieger, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel and Carina Cornesse (2020): Die Mannheimer Corona-Studie: Die vier Phasen des Social Distancing in Deutschland. Mannheim more
Möhring, Katja, Elias Naumann, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Annelies G. Blom, Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Roni Lehrer, Ulrich Krieger, Sebastian Juhl, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel and Carina Cornesse (2020): Die Mannheimer Corona-Studie: Schwerpunktbericht zu Erwerbstätigkeit und Kinderbetreuung. Mannheim more
Möhring, Katja, Friederich Heinemann, Elias Naumann, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Annelies G. Blom, Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Roni Lehrer, Ulrich Krieger, Sebastian Juhl, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel and Carina Cornesse (2020): Die Mannheimer Corona-Studie: Schwerpunktbericht zum subjektiven Arbeitslosigkeitsrisiko der Beschäftigten in Deutschland. Mannheim more
Möhring, Katja, Elias Naumann, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Annelies G. Blom, Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Roni Lehrer, Ulrich Krieger, Sebastian Juhl, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel and Carina Cornesse (2020): Die Mannheimer Corona-Studie: Schwerpunktbericht zur Erwerbstätigkeit in Deutschland 20.3.-15.4.2020. Mannheim more
Möhring, Katja, Elias Naumann, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Andreas P. Weiland, Annelies G. Blom, Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Roni Lehrer, Ulrich Krieger, Sebastian Juhl, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel and Carina Cornesse (2020): Die Mannheimer Corona-Studie: Schwerpunktbericht zur Nutzung und Akzeptanz von Homeoffice in Deutschland während des Corona-Lockdowns. Mannheim more
Naumann, Elias, Jutta Mata, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Katja Möhring, Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Roni Lehrer, Ulrich Krieger, Sebastian Juhl, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel, Carina Cornesse and Annelies G. Blom (2020): Die Mannheimer Corona-Studie: Schwerpunktbericht zum Angstempfinden in der Bevölkerung; Untersuchungszeitraum 20. März bis 16. April 2020. Mannheim more
Burton, Jonathan, Roxanne Connelly, Mick P. Couper, Thomas Crossley, Catherine De Vries, Vernon Gayle, Tim Hanson, Annette Jäckle, Peter Lynn, Nicole Martin, Alice McGee, Christopher Playford, Stephen Pudney, Maria Sobolewska, Luke Taylor, Sandra Walzenbach and Alexander Wenz (2019): Understanding Society Innovation Panel Wave 11: Results from methodological experiments. Colchester [Understanding Society Working Paper] more
Jäckle, Annette, Alexander Wenz, Jonathan Burton and Mick P. Couper (2019): Increasing participation in a mobile app study: The effects of a sequential mixed-mode design and in-interview invitation. Colchester [Understanding Society Working Paper] more
Wenz, Alexander (2017): Completing web surveys on mobile devices: Does screen size affect data quality?. Colchester [ISER Working Paper] more
Wenz, Alexander, Annette Jäckle and Mick P. Couper (2017): Willingness to use mobile technologies for data collection in a probability household panel. Colchester [Understanding Society Working Paper] more
Kaczmirek, Lars, Philipp Mayr, Ravi Vatrapu, Arnim Bleier, Manuela Blumenberg, Tobias Gummer, Abid Hussain, Katharina Kinder-Kurlanda, Kaveh Manshaei, Mark Thamm, Katrin Weller, Alexander Wenz and Christof Wolf (2014): Social media monitoring of the campaigns for the 2013 German Bundestag elections on Facebook and Twitter. Köln [GESIS Working Paper; 2014-31] more

Web Publications

Möhring, Katja, Elias Naumann, Maximiliane Reifenscheid, Annelies G. Blom, Alexander Wenz, Tobias Rettig, Roni Lehrer, Sebastian Juhl, Ulrich Krieger, Sabine Friedel, Marina Fikel and Carina Cornesse (2020): Inequality in employment during the Corona lockdown: Evidence from Germany, JESP European Social Policy Blog, 2020 more

Conference Presentations

El-Kayed, Nihad, and Alexander Wenz (2024): Everyday mobility in German cities: A smartphone-based assessment of activity spaces and their effect on social inequalities. [Workshop "The Power of Where: Spatial Insights from Survey Data", Cottbus, February 29th to March 01st, 2024] more
Tung, Wai Tak, and Alexander Wenz (2024): Mechanisms of participation in smartphone app data collection: A research synthesis. [5th MASS Workshop, Washington, DC, March 06th to March 07th, 2024] more
Tung, Wai Tak, and Alexander Wenz (2024): Mechanisms of participation in smartphone app data collection: A research synthesis. [General Online Research (GOR 24), Cologne, February 21st to February 23rd, 2024] more
von der Heyde, Leah, Anna-Carolina Haensch and Alexander Wenz (2024): Can Large Language Models Estimate How People Vote? Evidence from Germany. [WEB DATA OPP Workshop, Barcelona, March 18th to March 19th, 2024] more
von der Heyde, Leah, Anna-Carolina Haensch and Alexander Wenz (2024): Vox populi, vox AI? Estimating German public opinion through language models. [General Online Research (GOR 24), Cologne, February 21st to February 23rd, 2024] more
Wenz, Alexander, and Anna-Carolina Haensch (2024): Using large language models for evaluating and improving survey questions. [General Online Research (GOR 24), Cologne, February 21st to February 23rd, 2024] more
von der Heyde, Leah, Alexander Wenz and Anna-Carolina Haensch (2023): Artificial intelligence, unbiased opinions? Assessing GPT’s suitability for estimating public opinion in multi- party systems. [General Online Research (GOR 23), Kassel, September 20th to September 22nd, 2023] more
Wenz, Alexander, Florian Keusch and Ruben L. Bach (2023): Assessing the quality of digital behavioral data for measuring smartphone use. [4th MASS Workshop, Manchester, UK, June 22nd, 2023] more
Wenz, Alexander, and Florian Keusch (2023): How to increase the acceptance of mobile app and sensor data collection?. [AAPOR 78th Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA, May 10th to May 12th, 2023] more
Wenz, Alexander, and Florian Keusch (2022): How to increase the acceptance of mobile app and sensor data collection?. [General Online Research (GOR 22), Berlin, September 07th to September 09th, 2022] more
Wenz, Alexander, and Florian Keusch (2022): The second-level smartphone divide: A typology of smartphone usage based on frequency of use, skills, and types of activities. [ICA Postconference on Media Sociology, (virtual conference), June 01st, 2022] more
Wenz, Alexander, and Florian Keusch (2022): Wie lässt sich die Akzeptanz von Smartphone-Datenerhebungen erhöhen?. [Frühjahrstagung der Sektion Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS), (virtual conference), March 25th to March 26th, 2022] more
Keusch, Florian, Alexander Wenz and Frederick G. Conrad (2021): Measuring everyday behavior with smartphone sensors: Potential bias due to device usage. [AAPOR 76th Annual Conference, (virtual conference), May 11th to May 14th, 2021] more
Wenz, Alexander, and Florian Keusch (2021): The smartphone usage divide: Differences in people's smartphone behavior and implications for mobile data collection. [AAPOR 76th Annual Conference, (virtual conference), May 11th to May 14th, 2021] more
Wenz, Alexander, and Florian Keusch (2021): The smartphone usage divide: Differences in people's smartphone behavior and implications for mobile data collection. [General Online Research Konferenz 2021 (GOR 21), (virtual conference), September 08th to September 10th, 2021] more
Wenz, Alexander, Tarek Baghal, Luke Sloan and Curtis Jessop (2021): Twitter use during the Covid-19 pandemic: Results from two UK studies linking Twitter and survey data. [Understanding Society Survey Methods Conference, (virtual conference), September 27th to September 30th, 2021] more