Factors Contributing to Participation in Web-based Surveys among Italian University Graduates

Chiara Cimini (), Gasperoni () and Claudia Girotti ()
Additional contact information
Chiara Cimini: AlmaLaurea Inter-university Consortium
Gasperoni: University of Bologna, Dept. of Communication Disciplines
Claudia Girotti: AlmaLaurea Inter-university Consortium

No 35, Working Papers from AlmaLaurea Inter-University Consortium

Abstract: An established yearly survey aimed at monitoring the employment opportunities of Italian graduates, traditionally carried out with Cati methods, has been integrated during the last few years with Cawi. Cawi has become increasingly crucial due to the high number of graduates involved in the survey, which has mandated a reduction in fieldwork duration and unit costs. Although the seven Cawi surveys used here have different substantive and methodological characteristics, preliminary analysis reveals a common trend: the utmost participation is observed during the first few days immediately following initiation of fieldwork and, to a lesser degree, the delivery of follow-up reminders. Web respondents comprise a self-selected subgroup of the target population, having better academic performance and greater computer skills. A Cox regression model estimating response probability (or response time) shows, besides the obvious effects of certain personal and survey design characteristics, that faster response times are expressed by graduates in science or engineering and reporting good computer skills, whereas the fields of medicine/health and defence/security and no computer skills give rise to lower response probability. Ways to use these findings for fine-tuning data collection are discussed.

Keywords: Cawi surveys; Response rate; University graduates; Cox regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16
Date: 2011-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-lab
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www2.almalaurea.it/universita/pubblicazioni/wp/pdf/wp35.pdf First version, 2011 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://www2.almalaurea.it/universita/pubblicazioni/wp/pdf/wp35.pdf [307 Temporary Redirect]--> https://www2.almalaurea.it/universita/pubblicazioni/wp/pdf/wp35.pdf)

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

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:laa:wpaper:35

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from AlmaLaurea Inter-University Consortium
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().