Volume 36, Number 3 (Summer) 2001
Hill, Daniel, and Robert J. Willis. 2001. "Reducing Panel Attrition: A Search for Effective Policy Instruments." Journal of Human Resources 36(3):416-438.
In this paper we develop a theory of the survey response decision process and apply it to the analysis of field office policy measures in an attempt to see which of these are effective in reducing panel attrition. We use data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to assess the effectiveness of 1) reducing the length of the interview and 2) assigning the same initial interviewer wave after wave. There is virtually no evidence in the data that interview length affects subsequent wave response. Assigning the same interviewer wave after wave, however, has a strong positive effect on response rates.
Daniel Hill is an associate research scientist and Robert J. Willis is a senior research scientist in the Survey Research Center of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. The research was sponsored by a grant (U01-AG09740) from the National Institute of Aging of the National Institute of Health. The data used in this article can be obtained at any time from Daniel H. Hill, 3136 ISR, University of Michigan, P.O.B. 1248, Ann Arbor, MI. 48106-1248.
© 2002 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X