Archive for "August 2023"

Cost Efficiency of Incentives in Mature Probability-based Online Panels

Oliver Lipps, FORS (Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences), Lausanne & University of Bern, Switzerland
Julien Jaquet, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Lukas Lauener, FORS (Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences), Lausanne, Switzerland
Anke Tresch, FORS (Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences), Lausanne & University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Nicolas Pekari, FORS (Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences), Lausanne, Switzerland


Little is known about the trade-off between response rates and sample selection on the one hand and costs of different incentives on the other hand in mature online panel surveys. In wave 5 of the Panel Survey of the Swiss Election Study (Selects), a conditional CHF 20 (cash) is used for the politically least interested, while the remaining sample is randomized in two incentive groups: a conditional CHF 10 (cash) and a lottery (5×300 CHF). In the two experimental groups, there are only small differences regarding sample composition, and response rates are only slightly higher in the more expensive cash …

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