This paper showcases ways in which contact data can provide useful auxiliary information to study non-response and devise new strategies for statistical adjustment and fieldwork specification in cross-national surveys. We propose a typology of the processes generating contact data and discuss...

Household income is difficult to measure, since it requires collecting information about all potential income sources for each member of a household. We assess the effects of two types of edit check questions on measurement error and survey estimates: within-wave edit checks use responses to...

It is common practice to adapt the format of a question to the mode of data collection. Multi-coded questions in self-completion and face-to-face modes tend to be transformed for telephone into a series of ’yes/no’ questions. Questions with response scales are often branched in...

This paper examines the role of interviewers' experience, attitudes, personality traits and inter-personal skills in determining survey co-operation. We take the perspective that these characteristics influence interviewers‟ behaviour and hence influence the doorstep interaction between...

For some domains, panel surveys collect information about the period between interviews. Such data are typically affected by “seam effectsâ€: transition rates from one month (or week) to the next are typically far higher if the months were covered in two different interviews, than if...

Event history data from panel surveys typically display a concentration of transitions at the seam between waves of data collection. This ‘seam effect’ is likely to bias estimated durations of benefit receipt, attenuate the estimated effects of explanatory factors on conditional...