Modeling final outcome and length of call sequence to improve efficiency in interviewer call scheduling

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

September 15, 2015

Summary:

Survey practitioners are increasingly interested in how best to use paradata to improve data collection processes. One particular question is whether it is possible to identify early during fieldwork those sample cases that may require a long time, and therefore a lot of financial and staff resources, until interviewing is completed. More specifically, we aim to identify
cases with long unsuccessful call sequences. This paper models call record data predicting final call outcome and length of a
call sequence. Separate binary and joint multinomial logistic models for the two outcomes are presented, accounting for the clustering of households within interviewers. Of particular interest is to identify explanatory variables that predict final outcome and length of a call sequence. The study uses data from Understanding Society, a large-scale UK longitudinal survey. The
work has implications for responsive and adaptive survey designs. The results indicate that modeling outcome and length of a
call sequence jointly improves the fit of the model. Outcomes of previous calls, in particular from the most recent call, are highly predictive. The timing of calls and interviewer observation variables, although significant in the models, only slightly improve the predictive power.

Published in

Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology

Volume and page numbers

Volume: 3 , p.397 -424

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jssam/smv008

ISSN

23250984

Subject

Link

http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/375803/

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