Abstract
David McGrath (2006)
"Effects of Incentives in the U.S. Consumer
Expenditures Quarterly Survey"
Response rates to the Consumer Expenditures Quarterly Survey have
fallen from about 86 percent in 1990 to 76 percent by 2004. To combat
the falling rates, the Bureau of Labor Statistics introduced an incentives
experiment beginning in November, 2005. The goal was to increase response
rates by offering respondents an unconditional, pre-paid monetary
incentive. To achieve this goal, we mailed debit-card incentives
along with the survey's advance letter, prior to contacting the potential
survey respondent. The experimental design contrasts a control group
receiving $0 with groups that receive either $20 or $40 debit cards. In
this paper, we show the design of the incentive experiment, discuss
some field issues that arose during implementation, and provide preliminary
results that focus on the effects of the incentives on response
rates.
Last Modified Date: January 9, 2007
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