Conferences

Interviewer experience can be operationalized in many different ways. One definition is interviewers’ prior experience working on the same survey; that is, the project-specific experience. Interviewers with such project-specific experience are often given preference in staffing for panel surveys because, at a minimum, these interviewers require less training and are more familiar with project procedures than brand-new hires. In addition, interviewer experience also includes prior experience working with the same respondent/household on the same survey in the context of panel surveys. Presumably, interviewers with respondent-specific experience have an advantage in gaining cooperation from the same respondent/household. In repeated cross-sectional surveys, project-specific experiences are relevant. On panel surveys, however, both project-specific and respondent-specific experience are relevant. This paper investigates the effect of project-specific and respondent-specific experience on interviewer productivity and data quality.

We will examine three surveys conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago. The National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1997 Cohort (NLSY97) is a panel survey. The other two – the General Social Survey (GSS) and the Survey of Consumer Finance (SCF) – are repeated cross-section surveys. By comparing these two types of surveys, the paper will generate estimates of project-specific versus respondent-specific interviewer experience.

Available data permit assessment of interviewer productivity on these surveys in terms of cases completed and costs per case. In addition, data quality comparisons are possible for the NLSY97. For example, we can estimate the effects of project-specific and respondent-specific interviewer experience on item non-response, self-report to sensitive questions, and consistency across rounds.