Affiliations: [a] Survey Research Division, RTI International, Research
Triangle Park, NC, USA | [b] Statistics Research Division, RTI International,
Research Triangle Park, NC, USA | [c] Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, Rockville, MD, USA
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Joe Eyerman, RTI
International, 3040 Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA.
Tel.: +1 919 541 7139; Fax: +1 919 316 3867; E-mail:
eyerman@rti.org
Abstract: Research has demonstrated that cash incentives paid to respondents in sample
surveys can increase the level of cooperation, reduce non-response bias, and
lower data collection costs. However, recent research has shown that gains in
response rate and reduced data collection costs associated with monetary
incentives may vary across sub-groups in the population. Consequently, monetary
incentives may result in inconsistent reductions in non-response error and
systemic changes in sample composition. This paper describes an incentive
experiment conducted as part of the 2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse
(NHSDA), and evaluates the impact of monetary incentives on measures of
cooperation for different population sub-groups. Findings indicate that the
incentive had a positive impact on cooperation. Furthermore, the incentive
neither introduced additional differences in cooperation propensities, nor did
it eliminate the pre-existing differences in cooperation among population
sub-groups.
