AN EXPERIMENT WITH CASH INCENTIVES ON A PERSONAL INTERVIEW SURVEY

An experiment was conducted with cash incentives on a personal intervi ew survey in three Ontario, Canada, cities. One dollar prepaid yielded significantly higher response, sample-wide, and less sociodemographic bias, than either $1 or $10 promised at the conclusion of the intervi ew. Item non-response did not significantly differ across the incentiv e conditions. Although the effectiveness of prepayments is well establ ished for postal surveys, little is known about how conditions of paym ent affect response in the personal interview mode. The effect of the token prepayment clearly was strong, given that the present survey inv olved an interview demanding an hour or more of the respondent's time.