PUMA recruiting experiments
The Platform for Surveys, Methods and Empirical Analyses (PUMA) conducts a series of surveys under the theme “Austria in transition”. The series aims at researching societal changes in Austria and the survey data are generated by Statistics Austria. In two consecutive evaluations, I assessed in close cooperation with Statistik Austria the recruiting procedure for the online survey. The evaluation aimed to identify a reliable and cost-effective approach for online survey recruitment including the application of incentives.
In the first round, the recruitment was based on former micro census participants. The micro census is a highly representative sample providing a simple access to respondents. Nonetheless, the results from the evaluation indicate a systematic bias in the final sample.
The second survey draw the sample based on public records combining conditional and unconditional incentives in the experimental design. The random sample from the register data seems a decent and cost-sensitive alternative to the sampling from the first round. Nevertheless, the final samples include a similar bias than in the first experiment.
