Is there a trade-off between time-efforts in contact procedure and data quality? Empirical study based on contact files in ESS Round 4

Hideko Matsuo, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Jaak Billiet, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Survey research has focused on achieving higher response rates because lower response rates are more likely to lead to higher non-response bias. This is why European Social Survey has stressed the importance of implementing specifications of fieldwork activities. This paper assesses the interplay between extra time-efforts and response outcome, and data quality acquired by additional visits. Two steps are taken in this paper. It firstly studies the effects of fieldwork efforts on survey cooperation taking into account on information on contact procedure based on the information available in the ESS Round 4 contact files in selected countries. The paper uses proportional hazard model with time varying covariates, such as existence of face to face visits, existence of refusals and visits outside of working hours, plus number of interviewers visiting the sample units as well as 4 types of neighborhood characteristics assessed by interviewers. In the second part of this paper, we assess whether and how additional sample obtained by extra visits contribute to the overall data quality in the main data. Implications on further specifying fieldwork efforts from the viewpoint of reducing non-response bias in cross-national research will be discussed. Key words Fieldwork efforts, survey cooperation, data quality, contact files, European Social Survey