ESRA 2027 sessions by theme
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The Economics of Survey Fieldwork: Practical Strategies for Budgeting, Payment Structures, and Fieldwork Performance |
| Coordinator 1 | Ms Judith Kronschnabl (SHARE BERLIN Institute) |
| Coordinator 2 | Dr Mustafa Coban (IAB Online Panel for Labour Market Research (IAB-OPAL)) |
Session Details
Rising fieldwork costs, declining response rates, and increasing complexity in survey implementation have underscored the methodological importance of understanding the economics of survey research. Nevertheless, systematic evidence remains limited on planning survey budgets, estimating and documenting costs, and allocating financial resources across fieldwork stages.
An additional methodological gap concerns the relationship between financial and contractual arrangements with survey agencies and subsequent fieldwork outcomes. Interviewer remuneration, agency pricing models, and performance-related payment schemes may shape the distribution of financial risk, fieldwork effort, and productivity, and consequently affect response rates, respondent cooperation, panel retention, and data quality.
This session invites contributions examining the costs and economics of survey design and implementation. We particularly welcome research on practical approaches to budget planning and cost estimation; comparisons of expected and realised survey costs; methods for documenting and harmonising cost information across survey waves, countries or modes; and methodological research on the relationship between survey fieldwork economics, fieldwork performance, retention, and data quality.
Both methodological and applied contributions are encouraged, including empirical analyses, survey experiments, cross-national comparisons, case studies from large-scale surveys or official statistics, and conceptual work to improve the measurement and comparability of survey costs.
The session brings together researchers and practitioners involved in survey budgeting, cost measurement, fieldwork contracting, and payment structures to identify and share best practices in budget planning and survey cost documentation. The session also aims to strengthen the evidence base on allocating financial resources and designing contractual incentives that support cost-efficient fieldwork while maintaining participation, retention, and data quality.
