Respondent Behavior and Data Quality Aspects in Panel Surveys: Four Empirical Contributions
Oliver Serfling
This study investigates the mechanisms determining item nonresponse focusing on three issues: First, is there significant heterogeneity in item nonresponse across financial questions and in the association of covariates with item nonresponse across outcomes? Second, can the informational value of surveys be improved by matching interviewers and respondents based on their characteristics? Third, how does offering a "don't know" answer option affect respondent behavior? The questions are answered based on detailed survey and interviewer data from the German Socioeconomic Panel using a broad set of income and wealth outcomes. We find considerable heterogeneity in nonresponse across financial items, little explanatory power of interviewer-respondent matches and strong evidence that "don't know" answers result from mechanisms that differ from those yielding valid responses and outright refusals to respond.
Anzahl Seiten | 139
Abteilung/Forschungsstelle | Statistik und Ökonometrie
Jahr | 2006
Bezugsquelle | Eigenverlag, Wiesbaden 2006