The Effects of Material Incentives in Mail Surveys: Two Studies |
| |
| Authors: | NEDERHOF ANTON J. |
| |
| Affiliation: | Anton J. Nederhof is a Research Fellow at the Center for Social Science Research, University of Leyden, The Netherlands. This paper was written while the author was a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at the Departments of Rural Sociology and Sociology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington. The author wishes to thank Don A. Dillman and Leo Th. J. van der Kamp for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper. |
| |
| Abstract: | Two studies were undertaken on the effects of including a materialnonmonetary incentive in mail surveys, using various samplesof the general public in the Netherlands. The results show thatnonmonetary incentives produce a higher initial response rate,but follow-ups reduced the effect of the incentive to a nonsignificantratio. Inclusion of the incentive produced no response biasand little volunteer bias. Results from these studies offera possible explanation for why past studies on nonmonetary incentiveshave often shown positive effects: they were conducted usingmethods that produced low response rates. When methods thatproduce high response rates are used, the effect of nonmonetaryincentives on response rate disappears. Finally, the use ofmonetary incentives in mail surveys with a high base responseis discussed. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 Oxford 等数据库收录！ |
|
