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The Effects of Dependent Interviewing on Responses to Questions on Income Sources

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  • Peter Lynn
  • Annette Jäckle
  • Stephen P. Jenkins
  • Emanuela Sala

Abstract

Using an experimental design, we compare two alternative approaches to dependent interviewing (proactive and reactive) with traditional independent interviewing on a module of questions about sources of income. We believe this to be the first large-scale quantitative comparison of proactive and reactive dependent interviewing. The three approaches to questioning are compared in terms of their impact on under-reporting of income sources and related bivariate statistics. The study design also enables identification of the characteristics of respondents whose responses are sensitive to the mode of interviewing. We conclude that under-reporting can be significantly greater with independent interviewing than with either form of dependent interviewing, especially for income sources that are relatively common or relatively easy to forget. We find that dependent interviewing is particularly helpful as a recall aid for respondents below retirement age and registered disabled persons.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Lynn & Annette Jäckle & Stephen P. Jenkins & Emanuela Sala, 2005. "The Effects of Dependent Interviewing on Responses to Questions on Income Sources," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 487, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp487
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    1. Stephen Pudney & Monica Hernandez & Ruth Hancock, 2007. "The welfare cost of means-testing: pensioner participation in income support," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(3), pages 581-598.
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    Cited by:

    1. Lynn, Peter & Sala, Emanuela, 2004. "The contact and response process in business surveys: lessons from a multimode survey of employers in the UK," ISER Working Paper Series 2004-12, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    2. Nathalie Greenan & Edward Lorenz & Stephen Allan & Thomas Amossé & Daniele Archiburgi & Anthony Arundel & Eva Bejerot & Lutz Bellmann & Sophie Bressé & Adam Coutts & Peter Csizmadia & Peter Ester & Jo, 2010. "The MEADOW Guidelines," Post-Print halshs-01362486, HAL.
    3. Stephen P. Jenkins & Lorenzo Cappellari & Peter Lynn & Annette Jäckle & Emanuela Sala, 2006. "Patterns of consent: evidence from a general household survey," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 169(4), pages 701-722, October.
    4. Lynn, Peter & Sala, Emanuela & Noah Uhrig, S.C., 2008. "The development and implementation of a coding scheme to analyse interview dynamics in the British Household Panel Survey," ISER Working Paper Series 2008-19, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    5. Jäckle, Annette, 2006. "Dependent interviewing: a framework and application to current research," ISER Working Paper Series 2006-32, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    6. Sala, Emanuela & Knies, Gundi & Burton, Jonathan, 2013. "Propensity to consent to data linkage: experimental evidence from the Innovation Panel on the role of three survey design features," Understanding Society Working Paper Series 2013-05, Understanding Society at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    7. Schräpler, Jörg-Peter & Schupp, Jürgen & Wagner, Gert G., 2010. "Changing from PAPI to CAPI: Introducing CAPI in a Longitudinal Study," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 26(2), pages 239-269.
    8. Lynn, Peter & Sala, Emanuela & Noah Uhrig, S.C., 2009. "“It is time computers do clever things!” The impact of dependent interviewing on interviewer burden," ISER Working Paper Series 2009-07, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    9. Lynn, Peter & Sala, Emanuela, 2004. "Measuring change in employment characteristics: the effects of dependent interviewing," ISER Working Paper Series 2004-26, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    10. repec:diw:diwwpp:dp488 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Lynn, Peter & Jäckle, Annette, 2004. "Dependent interviewing and seam effects in work history data," ISER Working Paper Series 2004-24, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    12. Jäckle, Annette, 2005. "Does dependent interviewing really increase efficiency and reduce respondent burden?," ISER Working Paper Series 2005-11, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    13. Lynn, Peter & Sala, Emanuela, 2005. "The impact of a mixed-mode data collection design on non response bias on a business survey," ISER Working Paper Series 2005-16, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    14. Emanuela Sala & Peter Lynn, 2009. "The potential of a multi-mode data collection design to reduce non response bias. The case of a survey of employers," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 123-136, January.
    15. Pudney, Stephen & Hancock, Ruth & Morciano, Marcello, 2013. "Nonparametric estimation of a compensating variation: the cost of disability," ISER Working Paper Series 2013-26, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    16. Lynn, Peter & Jäckle, Annette & Sala, Emanuela & P. Jenkins, Stephen, 2004. "The impact of interviewing method on measurement error in panel survey measures of benefit receipt: evidence from a validation study," ISER Working Paper Series 2004-28, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    17. Lynn, Peter & Jäckle, Annette & Sala, Emanuela & P. Jenkins, Stephen, 2004. "Validation of survey data on income and employment: the ISMIE experience," ISER Working Paper Series 2004-14, Institute for Social and Economic Research.

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