Abstract
Adam Safir and Lucilla Tan "Using Contact Attempt History Data to Determine the Optimal Number of Contact Attempts"
The Consumer Expenditure Quarterly Interview Survey (CEQ) expends a
disproportionate amount of effort attempting to collect data from difficult-to-interview
respondents. Maintaining acceptable response rates, improving sample
representativeness, and reducing potential nonresponse bias are factors that drive multiple
contact attempts. However, data from difficult-to-interview respondents come at a
relatively high cost. In the face of budgetary constraints, a decision to lower the
maximum number of contact attempts is one way to reduce overall data collection costs.
In this study, we attempt to determine an optimal contact attempt threshold by evaluating
the tradeoffs of four fundamental survey performance measures along the continuum of
contact attempts: survey response rate, sample representativeness, reporting quality, and
cost.
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