Respondent Incentives, Interviewer Training, and Survey Participation

在过去的几十年里，德国和欧洲的调查参与率一直在下降。这可能会损害所收集数据的可靠性，因为不参与可能不是随机的。因此，从这些数据得出的结果可能是有偏差的，因为样本可能不能代表实际的目标人群。拟议的研究项目将从两个方面针对这个问题。首先，我们将调查如何在德国增加面对面访谈的参与。欧洲健康、老龄化和退休调查（SHARE）将为一项至少对4 000人进行的大规模实验提供基础。我们将研究无条件的金钱激励对受访者参与意愿的影响，从而影响整体调查的回应率。此外，一组采访者将接受有关拒绝回避的特别训练，以测试拒绝回避对回应率的影响。其次，我们将进行混合模式非响应研究，以量化潜在的非响应偏差。该项目的结果将使研究人员在进行调查时能够更有效地选择使用受访者激励和特殊访谈者培训。因此，这一特定项目的长期后果对那些尚未对奖励和培训的使用进行彻底调查的国家的计划中的和现有的调查项目是重要的。此外，将评估无反应的实际后果，这将为无反应偏见的程度提供证据。

Survey participation has been declining in Germany and Europe over the past decades. This may harm the reliability of the collected data because the non-participation may not be random. As a consequence, results drawn from these data may be biased since the sample may not be representative of the actual target population.The proposed research project will target this issue from both ends. First, we will investigate how participation in face-to-face interviews can be increased in Germany. The Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) will provide the backbone for a large scale experiment which will be conducted with at least 4,000 individuals. We will examine the effect of unconditional monetary incentives on the respondents' willingness to participate and thus on the overall survey response rates. In addition, a group of interviewers will receive special training on refusal avoidance (RAT), to test the effectiveness of RAT on response rates. Second, we will conduct a mixed-modes non-response study to quantify the potential non-response bias.The results from this project will enable researchers to more effectively choose between the use of respondent incentives and special interviewer training when conducting surveys. The long term consequences of this particular project are thus important for planned and existing survey projects in countries, where the use of incentives and training has not been thoroughly investigated yet. In addition the actual consequences of non-response will be assessed, which will provide evidence on the extent of non-response bias.