Try, try again: Response and nonresponse in the 2009 SCF panel

Abstract

The 2007 SCF was designed as a continuation of a series of cross-sectional surveys on the financial condition of U.S. households. In light of the serious economic downturn that followed that survey, the Federal Reserve Board decided to pursue a second interview with the survey participants to understand how the aggregate changes played out across households. Great care was taken to prepare interviewers to deal with respondents, who would not have expected an additional contact and some of whom had earlier expressed a strong desire never to be bothered again. Ultimately, the survey achieved a re-interview rate of almost 89 percent and a relatively low item nonresponse rates for such a complex survey. This paper uses the formal and informal paradata to examine key factors in survey response. If the nonrespondents to the re-interview are representative of marginal respondents in both years, there is an advantage in studying the group, because so much is known about them from their earlier interview and the process of obtaining that interview.