Improving Survey Response Lessons Learned from the European Social Survey

by Stoop, Ineke A. L.; Billiet, Jaak; Koch, Achim; Fitzgerald, Rory

• ISBN13: 9780470516690
• ISBN10: 0470516690
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-26
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Survey Nonresponse in Europe discusses techniques that enable the survey statistician to estimate the level of nonresponse, and adjust for it accordingly in order to improve the results. All the fundamental issues in nonresponse area are discussed, for example, nonresponse bias, the various causes of nonresponse, and measurement tools to assess the efficiency of fieldwork strategies. With real life case studies from twenty-five countries, the book uses a wealth of data taken from the European Social Survey (ESS) and is accompanied by a Web site hosting the survey data.

Author Biography

Ineke Stoop, The Netherlands Institute for Social Research/SCP, The Hague, The Netherlands. Jaak Billiet, Centre for Sociological Research (CeSO), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Achim Koch, GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Mannheim, Germany. Rory Fitzgerald, Centre for Comparative Social Surveys, City University London, UK.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements	p. ix
List of Countries	p. xiii
Backgrounds of Nonresponse	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
Declining Response Rates	p. 2
Total Survey Quality and Nonresponse	p. 3
Optimizing Comparability	p. 5
Survey Response in Cross-national Studies	p. 9
Introduction	p. 9
Harmonization Models	p. 10
Contactability	p. 13
Ability to Cooperate	p. 16
Willingness to Cooperate	p. 17
Social environment and survey culture	p. 17
Households and individuals	p. 19
Survey design	p. 20
Interviewers	p. 23
Interviewer-respondent interaction: why people cooperate	p. 24
Nonresponse Bias	p. 29
What is nonresponse bias?	p. 29
Combating and adjusting for nonresponse bias	p. 33
Ethics and Humans	p. 37
The European Social Survey	p. 39
Introduction	p. 39
What is the European Social Survey?	p. 39
Aims, history and philosophy	p. 39
Content	p. 42
Participating countries	p. 43
Organization and structure	p. 44
ESS Design and Methodology	p. 49
The central specification	p. 49
Quality and optimal comparability	p. 51
Sampling designs, procedures and definitions of the population	p. 55
Fieldwork and contracting	p. 57
Nonresponse Targets, Strategies and Documentation	p. 59
Background	p. 59
Requirements and guidelines	p. 60
Definition and calculation of response rates	p. 61
Contact forms	p. 67
Conclusions	p. 69
A Contact Form as Used in ESS 3	p. 70
Implementation of the European Social Survey	p. 75
Introduction	p. 75
Basic Survey Features	p. 76
Survey organization, administration mode and sample	p. 76
Sample size, number of interviewers and length of fieldwork period	p. 78
Survey costs	p. 81
Practical Fieldwork Issues	p. 82
Interviewers	p. 82
Information and incentives	p. 85
Summary and Conclusions	p. 87
Response and Nonresponse Rates in the European Social Survey	p. 89
Data and Definitions	p. 89
Response and Nonresponse Rates in ESS 3	p. 92
Rate of ineligibles	p. 92
Response rate	p. 93
Structure of nonresponse	p. 94
Response Rate Changes Over Time	p. 95
Overview	p. 95
Response rate trends for specific countries	p. 99
Response Rate Differences and Fieldwork Efforts	p. 102
Response rate differences across countries and fieldwork efforts	p. 102
Change in response rates over time and change in fieldwork efforts	p. 106
Response Enhancement Through Extended Interviewer Efforts	p. 115
Introduction	p. 115
Previous Research on Contactability	p. 117
Factors in establishing contact	p. 117
Who is hard to contact?	p. 118
Call patterns and strategies	p. 120
Previous Research on Cooperation	p. 122
Covariates of cooperation	p. 122
Causes of cooperation and noncooperation	p. 126
Attitudes towards surveys and reasons for refusal	p. 127
Sample Type and Recruitment Mode in the ESS	p. 129
Sampling issues	p. 129
Recruitment mode	p. 131
Establishing Contact in the ESS	p. 133
Introduction	p. 133
Noncontact rates	p. 133
Ease of contact and number of calls	p. 135
Timing of calls	p. 138
Obtaining Cooperation in the ESS	p. 142
Introduction	p. 142
Cooperation rates	p. 144
Cooperation and number of contacts	p. 144
Reasons for refusal	p. 150
Effects of Enhanced Field Efforts in the ESS	p. 153
Conclusion	p. 156
Response Outcomes in ESS 1, 2 and 3 (%)	p. 158
Refusal Conversion	p. 161
Introduction	p. 161
Previous Research	p. 162
Research questions	p. 162
How successful is refusal conversion?	p. 164
Which factors contribute to successful conversion?	p. 166
Refusal conversion and data quality	p. 168
Refusal Conversion in the ESS	p. 171
Efforts and effects	p. 171
Refusal type and refusal conversion	p. 176
Timing of refusal conversion attempts	p. 182
Refusal Conversion and Data Quality	p. 188
Refusal conversion and sample representativeness	p. 189
Refusal conversion and measurement error in the ESS	p. 191
Discussion and Conclusions	p. 199
Interviewer Variance in Cooperation Rates	p. 202
Designs for Detecting Nonresponse Bias and Adjustment	p. 205
What is Nonresponse Bias?	p. 205
Methods for Assessing Nonresponse Bias	p. 207
Comparing response rates across subgroups in samples	p. 207
Comparing respondent-based estimates with similar estimates from other sources	p. 207
Comparing estimates between subgroups in the obtained samples	p. 208
Enriching the sampling frame data with data from external sources	p. 210
Contrasting alternative post-survey adjustments for nonresponse	p. 211
Detecting and Estimating Bias in the ESS	p. 214
Post-stratification	p. 214
Comparing cooperative with reluctant respondents	p. 229
Using additional observable data collected for all target persons	p. 243
The study of bias using core information on nonrespondents	p. 252
Conclusions	p. 278
Overview core variables and constructs	p. 281
Questionnaires nonresponse modules	p. 286
Lessons Learned	p. 293
Introduction	p. 293
Standardization, Tailoring and Control	p. 295
Achieving High Response Rates	p. 298
Refusal Conversion	p. 299
Nonresponse Bias	p. 300
Contact Forms and Fieldwork Monitoring	p. 302
Into the Future	p. 303
References	p. 305
Glossary	p. 321
Index	p. 325
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