Sarah Riley

The Effects of Differential Interviewer Incentives on a Field Data Collection Effort

Surveys routinely offer incentives to motivate respondents and increase the likelihood of their participation, yet surprisingly little is known about the effectiveness of interviewer incentives. If interviewer incentives increase interviewers’ success in gaining cooperation, they could help address declining survey response rates. In this article, we present the results of an experiment testing the effectiveness of interviewer incentives in the form of cash bonuses for each successfully completed field interview. We did not find evidence that higher payments to interviewers for each completion led to increased effort on the part of interviewers nor did they lead to higher levels of success in securing respondent cooperation. These findings suggest that per complete interviewer incentives may not be cost effective in reducing survey nonresponse.

Location Efficiency and Mortgage Risks for Low-Income Households

Abstract Household energy expenditures, especially for transportation, are fairly inelastic. Their effects on low-income households may be significant, due to the potential for energy consumption to displace other types of consumption when energy prices rise. Using accessibility as a proxy for lower transportation costs, we test the hypothesis that low- and moderate-income residents are less likely default when they are located in more accessible places. We find that regional accessibility has almost no effect on risks of default, but local job diversity has moderate mitigating effect.

Financial Record Checking in Surveys Do Prompts Improve Data Quality

Self-reports of financial information in surveys, such as wealth, income, and assets, are particularly prone to inaccuracy. We sought to improve the quality of financial information captured in a survey conducted by phone and in person by encouraging respondents to check records when reporting on income and assets. We investigated whether suggestive prompts influenced unit response, compliance with the request to check records, precision of estimates, and accuracy. We conducted a split sample experiment in the Community Advantage Panel Survey in which half of telephone respondents and half of in-person household interview respondents were encouraged to check the records. We found a modest positive effect of prompts on compliance but no effect on unit response, precision, or accuracy.

Coping with Adversity: Personal Bankruptcy Decisions of Lower-Income Homeowners Before and After Bankruptcy Reform

We examine the personal bankruptcy decisions of lower-income homeowners before and after the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA). Econometric studies suggest that personal bankruptcy is explained by financial gain rather than adverse events, but data constraints have hindered tests of the adverse events hypothesis. Using household level panel data and controlling for the financial benefit of filing, we find that stressors related to cash flow, unexpected expenses, unemployment, health insurance coverage, medical bills, and mortgage delinquencies predict bankruptcy filings a year later. At the federal level, the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform explains a decrease in filings over time in counties that experienced lower filing rates.