The OECD prepared a dedicated online survey for Czechia and for Poland, which were validated by the respective Czech and Polish members of the project Advisory Group. Each survey was circulated to a range of stakeholders in both countries, who were identified by the Advisory Group. Participants had the option of completing the survey in English, Czech or Polish. Participants were informed that participation in the survey was entirely voluntary and that their responses would remain anonymous, in accordance with the OECD Personal Data Protection guidance. Participant responses were stored and only accessible to authorized OECD staff until the project conclusion.
Surveying experts and specialised stakeholders is key to access information that is not available in the public domain, especially when assessing policy design and implementation. Soliciting opinions from experts within and outside government (including, in the case of Poland, service beneficiaries) can also yield useful insights regarding perceptions of existing public support schemes, and appetite for new types of policies or support. Anonymous responses also allow experts to provide opinions on subjects which have not yet reached a consensus or remain sensitive. Due to the selection of respondents based on their expert knowledge of housing-related issue and policymaking, the final sample can be small and not representative. Increasing the pool of respondents would likely bias results, since it would require the inclusion of non-experts with uninformed opinions (Maestas, Buttice and Stone, 2014[1]). The online stakeholder survey is therefore not intended to be representative and rather provide illustrative views among key housing stakeholders.