Self-administered surveys may be administered with a single mode or mixed data collection modes. How mixing modes of data collection affects survey costs is not well understood. We examine whether cost structures differ for mail-only versus web+mail mixed-mode surveys, what design features are associated with costs, and whether survey costs are associated with response rates. Using administrative survey cost data from two academic survey centers, we find that survey costs per sampled unit and per complete vary substantially across individual surveys. The average cost per sampled unit is surprisingly similar across mail-only and web+mail surveys. How the budget is allocated across printing, postage, incentive, and staff time varies across these designs: printing and postage costs are higher in mail-only surveys, and more of the budget is allocated to incentive costs and project management costs in web+mail surveys. Furthermore, higher cost surveys are associated with higher response rates, particularly for incentive costs.

中文翻译：

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检查不同调查的调查成本变化


自我管理的调查可以使用单一模式或混合数据收集模式进行管理。数据收集的混合模式如何影响调查成本尚不清楚。我们研究了纯邮件调查与 web+mail 混合模式调查的成本结构是否不同，哪些设计特征与成本相关，以及调查成本是否与回复率相关。使用来自两个学术调查中心的行政调查成本数据，我们发现每个抽样单元和每个完整的调查成本在个别调查中差异很大。在仅邮件调查和 web+mail 调查中，每个抽样单位的平均成本惊人地相似。预算在印刷、邮资、奖励和员工时间之间的分配方式在这些设计中有所不同：纯邮件调查的印刷和邮资成本较高，而 Web + 邮件调查中的预算更多分配给奖励成本和项目管理成本。此外，成本较高的调查与较高的回复率相关，尤其是在奖励成本方面。