Encouraging Early Participation in a Lengthy Survey That Collects Sensitive Personal Data: Do Large Monetary Incentives Make a Difference?

• Activity Number: 689
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 13, 2015 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): Catherine Haggerty* and Shannon Nelson and Steven Pedlow and Becki Curtis and Anna Joyce and Joanne Hsu and Maximilian Schmeiser
• Companies: The University of Chicago and NORC at the University of Chicago and NORC at the University of Chicago and NORC at the University of Chicago and NORC at the University of Chicago and Federal Reserve Board and Federal Reserve Board
• Keywords: monetary incentives ; survey participation ; sensitive data ; lengthy survey

Abstract

Every three years the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is conducted to collect family finance data using a lengthy survey instrument. The survey uses monetary incentives to encourage participation. During the last quarter of 2014, NORC conducted an experiment on behalf of the Federal Reserve Board to determine if offering larger incentives would encourage early participation, in Census tracts with income in the top quintile, in three US cities. Half of the respondents received a $5 bill with their initial letter. Three hundred randomly selected addresses in each city were randomly assigned to one of three initial incentive groups: $50, $100, and $150. The addresses in each initial incentive group were randomly assigned to one of two additional second phase treatments: an escalated ($75, $150, or $250, respectively) incentive or no escalation. These second phase treatments were offered to those respondents who initially refused to participate. We will present data on the effectiveness of pre and post-paid incentives in encouraging early participation in a high burden survey with respondents in higher income communities.