Abstract
To maximize the representativeness of results from surveys, coverage, sampling, nonresponse, measurement, and analysis errors must be minimized. Although not a cure-all, one approach for mitigating nonresponse errors is to maximize cooperation rates. In this study, personalizing mailings, token financial incentives, and the use of real stamps were tested for their impacts on cooperation rates for family forest owners asked to participate in the U.S. Forest Service’s National Woodland Owner Survey in the state of Connecticut. Token financial incentives, a two-dollar bill included in the first questionnaire mailing, significantly increased cooperation rates by 13 percentage points. Neither personalization nor real stamps showed significant impacts on cooperation rates. While these results are for just one state in the USA, we hypothesize that similar patterns would be observed in other states and likely other countries.
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Acknowledgments
Funding for this project was provided by the USDA Forest Service, State and Private Forestry program (Grant Numbers 09-DG-11420004-118 and 10-DG-11420004-081) and the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station. We would like to thank: Nancy Marek for assistance with data collection, the private landowners who participated in the study, and the manuscript reviewers for their constructive comments.
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Butler, B.J., Hewes, J.H., Tyrrell, M.L. et al. Methods for Increasing Cooperation Rates for Surveys of Family Forest Owners. Small-scale Forestry 16, 169–177 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-016-9349-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-016-9349-7