Affiliations: [a] Department of Economics, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Giessen, Germany | [b] Center for International, Development and Environmental Research (ZEU), Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Giessen, Germany | [c] GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Mannheim, Germany
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Peter Winker, Department of Economics, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Licher Strasse 64, 35394 Giessen, Germany. Tel.: +49 641 9922640; Fax: +49 641 9922649; E-mail:peter.winker@wirtschaft.uni-giessen.de
Abstract: Interviewers influence data quality in surveys unintentionally or
intentionally. Within the framework of theories on interviewers' motivation,
we analyze influences of interviewers' characteristics and payment schemes
on falsified and real data. The empirical analysis is based on data of a
large scale experimental study, which includes both real and falsified
interviews. For this experimental study, the interviewers' payment was
subject to two different conditions both for real and falsified interviews,
namely payment per completed interview and payment per hour. The impact of
payment, gender, and some measures of interviewers' attitudes is analyzed
with regard to duration of interviews and some meta-indicators used
previously to identify potential falsifications in survey data. Empirical
results are presented, and a conclusion is drawn regarding the impact of
payment scheme and interviewers' characteristics on data quality.
Keywords: Interviewer effects, interviewer falsifications, indicators for falsifications, payment scheme
