The use of differential incentives in surveys |
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| Coordinator 1 | Dr Alessandra Gaia (University College London) |
| Coordinator 2 | Ms Gerry Nicolaas (NatCen) |
There is increasing interest in the use of differential incentives – i.e. offering varying levels or types of incentive to different sample members – to attempt to improve survey response rates, minimise non-response bias, and increase cost-effectiveness. For example, higher value incentives may be targeted (i.e. “targeted incentives”) to specific population subgroups which are typically under-represented or of particular research interest (e.g. low-income respondents) or which are expected to be more responsive to incentives (e.g. in longitudinal studies, prior wave non-respondents). Researchers may also offer higher value conditional monetary incentives for survey participation within a certain timeframe (i.e. “early-bird” incentives) or at the end of fieldwork, as a tool to convert unproductive cases. Interviewers may also be instructed to use incentives “discretionally”, where other persuasion strategies are not effective.
While the promise of differential incentives is to efficiently allocate the survey budget and improve data quality, several aspects remain unresolved, particularly concerning their effectiveness, logistical aspects and ethical issues. These include, for example, considerations on the fairness of offering incentives of different amounts/type for the completion of the same task, presence/absence of a requirement to disclose the differential design to participants, and the risk of identifying/stigmatising sample members as belonging to hard-to-reach groups.
We welcome empirical and theoretical submissions on:
- The effect of differential incentives on response rates, representativeness, item non-response, measurement and other aspects of data quality;
- Applications of differential incentives in cross-sectional studies, where limited information on sample members is available for targeting;
- Costs-effectiveness;
- Ethical issues and considerations around acceptability for sample members, interviewers, funders and ethical bodies on the use of differential incentives;
- Operational and technological barriers in the implementation of differential incentives, especially in mixed-modes contexts.