Incentives Experiment Nonsubstantive Change Request

SIPP 2008 Panel Incentive Test

Recent SIPP panels have experienced the highest non-response rates in the SIPP. This proposed experiment will be conducted in the SIPP 2008 Panel to compare unconditional incentives given at wave 1 with discretionary incentives given to a limited number of reluctant respondents in all waves. Each of the incentive treatments has improvements over past treatments: the unconditional incentive is prepaid rather than promised; the discretionary incentives will be given to more eligible households than was the case in the 2001 test.

Treatment Groups:

Control: No incentive

Treatment 1: $20 incentive given to all households before Wave 1 interviewing.

Treatment 2: $40 discretionary incentive given to 15% of households in each wave, conditional on completed interview.

Sample:

Designated sample households will be randomly assigned to incentive treatment group by reduction group code. Each Field Representative (FR) is likely to have sample cases from each incentive group. Approximately 50% of sample cases will be assigned to the control treatment; 25% of sample cases will be assigned to treatment 1; and the remaining 25% of sample cases will be assigned to incentive treatment 2.