Working Paper

Does it Pay to Send Multiple Pre-Paid Incentives? Evidence from a Randomized Experiment

Abstract: To encourage survey participation and improve sample representativeness, the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) offers an unconditional pre-paid monetary incentive and separate post-paid incentive upon survey completion. We conducted a pre-registered between-subject randomized control experiment within the 2022 SCF, with at least 1,200 households per experimental group, to examine whether changing the pre-paid incentive structure affects survey outcomes. We assess the effects of: (1) altering the total dollar value of the pre-paid incentive (“incentive effect”), (2) giving two identical pre-paid incentives holding the total dollar value fixed (“reminder effect”), and (3) offering multiple pre-paid incentives of different amounts holding the total dollar value fixed (“slope effect”) on survey response rates, interviewer burden, and data quality. Our evidence indicates that a single $15 pre-paid incentive increases response rates and maintains similar levels of interviewer burden and data quality, relative to a single $5 pre-paid incentive. Splitting the $15 into two pre-paid incentives of different amounts increases interviewer burden though lengthening time in the field without improving response rates, reducing the number of contact attempts needed for a response, or improving data quality, regardless of whether the first pre-paid is larger or smaller than the second.

Keywords: Pre-paid incentives; Unconditional incentives; Sequential incentives; Response rates; Surveys; Data quality; Household finance;

JEL Classification: C83; C93; G50;

https://doi.org/10.17016/FEDS.2024.023

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)

Part of Series: Finance and Economics Discussion Series

Publication Date: 2024-04-19

Number: 2024-023

Note: CORRECT ORDER OF AUTHORS: Andrew C. Chang, Joanne W. Hsu, Eva Ma, Kate Bachtell, and Micah Sjoblom.