An Incentive Experiment Designed to Increase Response to a Between-Wave Contact Update Mailing in Two Panel Studies
Year: 2011
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Since 1969, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) has sent its families a “contact update ” mailing between waves of data collection in order to keep track of the whereabouts of the families and minimize attrition. Having updated contact information became all the more important starting in 1997 when PSID changed from annual to biennial interviewing. All things being equal, the longer the time between data collection waves, the greater the likelihood that sample persons have moved, and the greater the difficulty in locating movers (Couper and Ofstedal 2007; Duncan and Kalton 1987). Families are now sent the mailing the year before production interviewing, and those that update or verify their address and telephone information receive a $10 postpaid check. Field effort for the families that responded to this mailing in recent waves is much lower in the form of reduced tracking, refusal conversion efforts, and number of calls to finalize the case, underscoring the cost effectiveness of the mailing. Given these advantages, in 2008 we designed a study to improve the response rate of the contact update mailing (McGonagle et al. 2009, in press).
Source: Survey Practice
Authors: Katherine A. McGonagle, Robert F. Schoeni, Mick P. Couper, Mohammad Mushtaq
Institution: University of Michigan
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1895474587