Authors
Summary
When performing data linkage, survey respondents need to provide their informed consent. Since not all respondents agree to this request, the linked data-set will have fewer observations than the survey data-set alone and bias may be introduced. By focusing on the role that survey design features play in gaining respondents’ consent, this paper provides an innovative contribution to the studies in this field. Analysing experimental data collected in a nationally representative household panel survey of the British population, we find that interview features such as question format (dependent/independent questions) and placement of the consent question within the questionnaire have an impact on consent rates.
Volume and page numbers
Volume: 17 , p.455 -473
Subject
Notes
© 2014 The Author(s). Published by Routledge. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted.
Open Access article