Dear Colleagues,

The 5th European Survey Research Association (ESRA) conference will take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia from July 15-19, 2013. We invite you to submit a presentation to our session "The use of respondent incentives in face-to-face surveys: Effects on response rates, survey error and survey costs "

---------Session Details Decreasing response rates have become a major concern for face-to-surveys in modern societies in the last decades. To counter this downward trend, one possible and often used measure is respondent incentives. Incentives are used in a large variety of forms, modes and value, and survey modes. While there is evidence for a positive effect of incentives on response rates, there is still debate on the effects on survey error. Respondent incentives may increase sample selectivity by attracting a specific subset of respondents over proportionally to the survey. Incentives may also systematically change answers by survey respondents, thus producing measurement error, by changing survey participants' perception of the study or their motivation for participation. As incentives increase direct survey costs, research on the overall cost effectiveness of incentives is needed. Incentives may ease contact processes or increase data quality, thus save the survey enterprise fieldwork or data editing costs. Contributions sought for this session will address one or more of following research questions:

· Effects of respondent incentives on survey outcome: How are contact, cooperation, response rates influenced by incentives?

· Effects of respondent incentives on sample composition and nonresponse bias. Do incentives differentially affect the response propensity of various subgroups of the population?

· Effects of respondent incentives on measurement error. Do respondent incentives change the response behavior during the interview?

· Are respondent incentives cost effective? Can savings in terms of fieldwork effort outweigh the direct expenses for incentives? We want to focus the session on contributions from large-scale face-to-face surveys. We prefer results from experimental studies; however, all studies addressing the research questions are welcome.

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For submitting an abstract, please log onto the ESRA website, http://www.europeansurveyresearch.org/conferences/register. The deadline for abstract submission is January 13, 2013. During the submission process, you will be asked to select the area of survey methodology to which your presentation belongs. Here, please select "Unit Nonresponse and attrition" and then the title of this session: " The use of respondent incentives in face-to-face surveys: Effects on response rates, survey error and survey costs ".

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries about the session.

Thank you very much and best regards

Klaus Pforr, GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Mannheim, Germany, klaus.pforr@gesis.orgmailto:klaus.pforr@gesis.org

Ulrich Krieger, University of Mannheim, Germany, Ulrich.Krieger@uni-mannheim.demailto:Ulrich.Krieger@uni-mannheim.de

Michael Blohm, GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Mannheim, Germany, michael.blohm@gesis.orgmailto:michael.blohm@gesis.org

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Klaus Pforr GESIS -- Leibniz Institut für Sozialwissenschaft B2,1 Postfach 122155 D - 68072 Mannheim Tel: +49 621 1246 298 Fax: +49 621 1246 100 E-Mail: klaus.pforr@gesis.orgmailto:klaus.pforr@gesis.org __________________________________