The contributions of paradata and features of respondents, interviewers and survey agencies to panel co-operation in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe

The paper deals with panel co-operation in a cross-national, fully harmonized face-to-face survey. Our outcome of interest is panel co-operation in the fourth wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Following a multilevel approach, we focus on the contribution of paradata at three levels: fieldwork strategies at the survey agency level, features of the (current) interviewer and paradata describing respondents' interview experience from the previous wave. Our results highlight the importance of respondents' prior interview experience, and of interviewers' quality of work and experience. We also find that survey agency practice matters: daily communication between fieldwork co-ordinators and interviewers is positively associated with panel co-operation.