Abstract

Sample surveys routinely ask for respondent consent to link survey information with administrative databases, but not all survey units agree to the linkage. Efforts to study whether placement of the linkage consent question influences consent have been undertaken. However, these studies have only been performed in interviewer-administered household surveys. Whether placement matters in self-administered modes (e.g., web) and for other types of target populations remains an open question.
We conducted a placement experiment in a web survey of German establishments from a representative sample. The online questionnaire included a consent request to access and link administrative information from Germany’s Federal Employment Agency to the survey records of the responding establishments. Establishments were randomized to receive the linkage consent question either at the beginning, middle, or end of the survey interview.
To our knowledge, this is the only linkage consent experiment that has been conducted on a sample of establishments, and the only study that has manipulated more than two placement locations in a web survey. Thus, it offers insights and contributes to “best practice” guidelines for maximizing online linkage consent rates for establishments.