Background: Federally funded evaluation research projects typically strive for an 80% survey response rate, but the increasing difficulty and expense in reaching survey respondents raises the question of whether such a threshold is necessary for reducing bias and increasing the accuracy of survey estimates. Objectives: This analysis focuses on a particular component of survey methodology: the survey response rate and its relationship to nonresponse bias. Following a review of the literature, new analysis of data from a large, multisite random assignment experiment explores the relationship between survey response rates and measured nonresponse bias. Research Design: With detailed survey disposition data, the analysis simulates nonresponse bias at lower response rates. The subjects included 12,000 individuals who were fielded for 16 identical surveys as part of the Employment Retention and Advancement evaluation. Results: The results suggest scant relationship between survey nonresponse bias and response rates. The results also indicate that the pursuit of high response rates lengthens the fielding period, which can create other measurement problems. Conclusions: The costly pursuit of a high response rate may offer little or no reduction of nonresponse bias. Achieving such a high rate of response requires considerable financial resources that might be better applied to methods and techniques shown to have a greater effect on the reduction of nonresponse bias.

中文翻译：

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重新思考响应率：调查响应率与无响应偏差之间几乎没有关系的新证据。

背景：联邦资助的评估研究项目通常争取80％的调查答复率，但是与调查对象接触的难度和费用越来越大，这引发了这样一个阈值对于减少偏差和提高调查估计的准确性是否必要的问题。目标：本分析着重于调查方法的一个特定组成部分：调查答复率及其与无答复偏差的关系。在对文献进行回顾之后，对来自大型多站点随机分配实验的数据进行了新的分析，探索了调查响应率与测得的无响应偏差之间的关系。研究设计：利用详细的调查处理数据，该分析模拟了较低响应率下的无响应偏差。主题包括12 000个人参加了16个相同的调查，作为就业保留和晋升评估的一部分。结果：结果表明调查的无应答偏差和应答率之间的关系很少。结果还表明，追求高响应率会延长准备周期，这可能会带来其他测量问题。结论：对高响应率的昂贵追求可能无法或几乎没有减少无响应偏差。要实现如此高的响应率，需要大量的财务资源，这些资源可能会更好地应用于对减少无响应偏差产生更大影响的方法和技术。结果还表明，追求高响应率会延长准备周期，这可能会带来其他测量问题。结论：对高响应率的昂贵追求可能无法或几乎没有减少无响应偏差。要获得如此高的响应率，就需要大量的财务资源，这些资源可能会更好地应用于对减少无响应偏差产生更大影响的方法和技术上。结果还表明，追求高响应率会延长准备周期，这可能会带来其他测量问题。结论：对高响应率的昂贵追求可能无法或几乎没有减少无响应偏差。要获得如此高的响应率，就需要大量的财务资源，这些资源可能会更好地应用于对减少无响应偏差产生更大影响的方法和技术上。