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Speakers: Peter Lynn, University of Essex, and Nathan Reece, City St George’s, University of London
Abstract
For self-administered postal push-to-web surveys in countries such as the UK, where only address frames are available, it is challenging to devise a method for within-household respondent selection that has both desirable statistical properties and high compliance levels.
Several methods are currently used, with no consensus about their relative merits.
The aim of this research is to provide much-needed evidence about the relative effectiveness of alternative methods of within-household selection in the absence of an interviewer.
Two common approaches, the any two method (non-random with potential cost advantages) and the next-birthday method (quasi-random), are compared via an experimental design.
Each is believed to be the most practical of its kind. A factorial experiment was incorporated into the experimental design comparing two common styles of invitation letters, which could have an impact on the implementation of both within-household selection methods.
Research questions address differences between the methods in population representation, precision of estimation, and costs.
Overall, accounting for design effects, the any two method is cheaper to a small extent.
Little variation in precision of estimates or the distribution of answers to attitudinal questions is observed.
There is some indication that the proportion of the achieved sample in the next-birthday group has a higher proportion of younger respondents.
The average educational attainment is consistent across within household selection approaches, though this appears to be moderated by the type of letter used.
About the speakers
Peter Lynn is Professor of Survey Methodology at University of Essex. In addition to being a member of the European Social Survey (ESS) Core Scientific Team, he is Associate Director for methodology on Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, Director of Survey Futures and consultant to the UN on the revision of their handbook on social surveys.
Nathan Reece is a Survey Project Manager for self-completion data collection at City St George’s, University of London, working at the ESS HQ as part of the Core Scientific Team. He previously worked as an Associate Statistician for UN-ESCWA in Beirut, Lebanon.
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