IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jlabrs/v57y2023i1d10.1186_s12651-023-00349-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nonresponse trends in establishment panel surveys: findings from the 2001–2017 IAB establishment panel

Author

Listed:
  • Corinna König

    (Institute for Employment Research
    University of Mannheim)

  • Joseph W. Sakshaug

    (Institute for Employment Research
    University of Mannheim
    Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)

Abstract

Many household panel surveys have experienced decreasing response rates and increasing risk of nonresponse bias in recent decades, but trends in response rates and nonresponse bias in business or establishment panel surveys are largely understudied. This article examines both panel response rates and nonresponse bias in one of the largest and longest-running establishment panels, the IAB Establishment Panel. Response rate trends are reported over a 17-year period for each annual cohort and rich administrative data are used to evaluate changes in nonresponse bias and test hypotheses regarding short-term and long-term panel participation. The findings show that while cumulative panel response rates have declined over time, wave-to-wave reinterview rates have remained largely stable. Reinterview nonresponse bias has also remained stable, while cumulative nonresponse bias has consistently increased within all cohorts. Larger establishments and those that experienced an interviewer change or did not answer all survey questions (item nonresponse) in a previous wave were less likely to continue participating in the panel. These findings and their practical implications are discussed in conclusion.

Suggested Citation

  • Corinna König & Joseph W. Sakshaug, 2023. "Nonresponse trends in establishment panel surveys: findings from the 2001–2017 IAB establishment panel," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 57(1), pages 1-17, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jlabrs:v:57:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1186_s12651-023-00349-4
    DOI: 10.1186/s12651-023-00349-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s12651-023-00349-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s12651-023-00349-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bottone Marco & Modugno Lucia & Neri Andrea, 2021. "Response Burden and Data Quality in Business Surveys," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 37(4), pages 811-836, December.
    2. Udo Brixy & Susanne Kohaut & Claus Schnabel, 2007. "Do Newly Founded Firms Pay Lower Wages? First Evidence from Germany," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 161-171, June.
    3. Robert F. Schoeni & Frank Stafford & Katherine A. Mcgonagle & Patricia Andreski, 2013. "Response Rates in National Panel Surveys," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 645(1), pages 60-87, January.
    4. Joachim Wagner, 2012. "Average wage, qualification of the workforce and export performance in German enterprises: evidence from KombiFiD data [Durchschnittslohn, Belegschaftsqualifikation und Exporttätigkeit in deutschen," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 45(2), pages 161-170, July.
    5. repec:iab:iabfme:201104(en is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Janik, Florian, 2011. "Unit non-response in establishments surveyed for the first time in the IAB Establishment Panel," FDZ Methodenreport 201104_en, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    7. Florian Janik & Susanne Kohaut, 2012. "Why don’t they answer? Unit non-response in the IAB establishment panel," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 917-934, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. König Corinna & Sakshaug Joseph W. & Stegmaier Jens & Kohaut Susanne, 2021. "Trends in Establishment Survey Nonresponse Rates and Nonresponse Bias: Evidence from the 2001-2017 IAB Establishment Panel," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 37(4), pages 931-953, December.
    2. Antoni, Manfred & Janser, Markus & Lehmer, Florian, 2015. "The hidden winners of renewable energy promotion: Insights into sector-specific wage differentials," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 595-613.
    3. Benjamin Küfner & Joseph W. Sakshaug & Stefan Zins, 2022. "Establishment survey participation during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 56(1), pages 1-18, December.
    4. Michael Weinhardt & Alexia Meyermann & Stefan Liebig & Jürgen Schupp, 2016. "The Linked Employer-Employee Study of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP-LEE): Project Report," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 829, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    5. Hirsch, Boris, 2007. "Joan Robinson Meets Harold Hotelling : A Dyopsonistic Explanation of the Gender Pay Gap," Discussion Papers 51, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    6. Daniel Fackler & Lisa Hölscher & Claus Schnabel & Antje Weyh, 2022. "Does working at a start-up pay off?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 2211-2233, April.
    7. Laura Romeu Gordo, 2011. "Compression of morbidity and the labour supply of older people," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 503-513.
    8. Kristina Nyström & Gulzat Zhetibaeva Elvung, 2015. "New Firms as Employers: The Wage Penalty for Voluntary and Involuntary Job Switchers," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 29(4), pages 348-366, December.
    9. Borgschulte, Mark & Cho, Heepyung & Lubotsky, Darren, 2022. "Partisanship and survey refusal," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 332-357.
    10. Lu He & Yulei Rao & Lin Xu, 2023. "Appointment-Based CEO Connectedness and Employee Compensation: Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-15, August.
    11. Tjaša Bartolj, 2023. "Should Firms Strive for the Educational Diversity of the Workforce? Estimation of the Impact of Firms’ Educational Structure on Sales Growth and Exports," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, February.
    12. Dorner, Matthias & Fryges, Helmut & Schopen, Kathrin, 2017. "Wages in high-tech start-ups – Do academic spin-offs pay a wage premium?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 1-18.
    13. Murmann, Martin, 2017. "The Growth and Human Capital Structure of New Firms over the Business Cycle," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168290, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    14. Brixy, Udo & Murmann, Martin, 2016. "The growth and human capital structure of new firms over the business cycle," IAB-Discussion Paper 201642, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    15. Seiler, Christian & Heumann, Christian, 2013. "Microdata imputations and macrodata implications: Evidence from the Ifo Business Survey," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 722-733.
    16. Mario Bossler & Gregor Geis & Jens Stegmaier, 2018. "Comparing survey data with an official administrative population: assessing sample-selectivity in the IAB Establishment Panel," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 899-920, March.
    17. Schwiebert, Jörg & Wagner, Joachim, 2015. "A Generalized Two-Part Model for Fractional Response Variables with Excess Zeros," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113059, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    18. Janik Florian, 2014. "Teilnahmeverweigerungen in Betriebsbefragungen / Unit-Nonresponse in Establishments Surveys: Eine Analyse anhand des IAB-Betriebspanels 2009 / An Analysis Using the IAB Establishment Panel 2009," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 234(4), pages 474-489, August.
    19. Murmann, Martin, 2017. "The productivity effects of worker replacement in young firms," ZEW Discussion Papers 17-010, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    20. Christian Seiler, 2013. "Nonresponse in Business Tendency Surveys: Theoretical Discourse and Empirical Evidence," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 52.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Administrative data; Attrition; Establishment survey; Nonresponse bias; Panel participation; Paradata;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C12 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Hypothesis Testing: General
    • C83 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Survey Methods; Sampling Methods

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jlabrs:v:57:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1186_s12651-023-00349-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.