Starting small and ending big -- the effect of monetary incentives on response rates in the 2003 Survey of Small Business Finances: an observational experiment

Traci L. Mach, Lieu N. Hazelwood and John David Wolken

No 2008-26, Finance and Economics Discussion Series from Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)

Abstract: In 2003, the Survey of Small Business Finances (SSBF), conducted by the Federal Reserve Board, implemented the use of incentives to increase response rates. This study examines the effects of some of the characteristics of the implementation - such as level of effort, time in queue, and consecutively-increasing incentive amounts - on unit response. Our estimates suggest that as the number of days increase between the initial screener and main interview, the probability of completion decreases. Similarly, as the number of days increases between each consecutive incentive offer the probability of completion decreases. Additional effort, as measured by additional calls, increases the probability of completion. Finally, each consecutive offer after the initial offer decreases the probability of completion.

Keywords: Small business - Finance; Economic surveys (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac
Date: 2008
View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2008/200826/200826abs.html (text/html)
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2008/200826/200826pap.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.federalre ... /feds/fedsorder.html

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Finance and Economics Discussion Series from Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Diane Rosenberger ().