Using paradata to predict best times of contact, conditioning on household and interviewer influences

Abstract

Establishing contact is an important part of the response process and effective interviewer calling behaviours are critical in achieving contact and subsequent co-operation. The paper investigates best times of contact for different types of households and the influence of the interviewer on establishing contact. Recent developments in the survey data collection process have led to the collection of so-called field process data or paradata, which greatly extend the basic information on interviewer calls. The paper develops a multilevel discrete time event history model based on interviewer call record data to predict the likelihood of contact at each call. The results have implications for survey practice and inform the design of effective interviewer calling times, including responsive survey designs. © 2011 Royal Statistical Society.