Dependent interviewing techniques, where substantive information from previous interviews is fed forward and used in the formulation of questions or to prompt post-response edit checks, are increasingly employed by panel surveys. While there is substantial evidence that dependent interviewing improves the quality of longitudinal data, claims of improved efficiency of data collection and reduced respondent burden are mostly anecdotal. This paper uses data from a large experiment to systematically compare the effects of different question designs on efficiency and burden. The comparison highlights the wide variety of design options for dependent interviewing questions and their corresponding effects. In the present setup, efficiency gains were mainly due to reductions in coding costs for occupation and industry questions. The paper concludes by identifying the conditions under which dependent interviewing offers the largest scope for efficiency gains and burden reduction.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for Social and Economic Research in its series ISER working papers with number
2005-11.
Length: 14 Date of creation: 07 Jun 2005 Date of revision: Publication status: published Handle: RePEc:ese:iserwp:2005-11
Contact details of provider: Postal: Publications Office, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex CO4 3SQ UK Phone: 44-1206-872957 Fax: 44-1206-873151 Web page: http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/
Order Information: Postal: Publications Office, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex CO4 3SQ UK Email: Web: http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/publications/
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Paul Groves).
Related research
Keywords:
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: