Incentives for Businesses: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Statistics Netherlands (CBS) contacts businesses in the Netherlands regularly with questionnaires on business data. In order to optimize response behaviour, CBS started a project where businesses participating in the monthly and quarterly surveys received an incentive in return. The aim of this study was to evaluate a possible long-term effect on response rates and reminding rates, using an interrupted time series design. It was examined whether the effect of time on the response rate as well as the reminding rate was the same for businesses before and after the introduction of the incentive, while controlling for business size and economic activity. It was expected that businesses would respond more frequently, and less reminding would be needed. Multilevel analyses show no support for these expectations. A visual inspection shows a decrease in response rates and an increase in reminding rates after the introduction of the incentive. Further examination is needed to understand this unexpected effect of the incentive.