Extent and Determinants of Panel Attrition in the European Community Household Panel
Abstract
The aim of the paper is to analyse the extent and determinants of panel attrition in the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). The fact that, after five waves, in some countries the response rate has declined to about 50%, leads to concerns about the representativeness of the remaining participants. We find the extent and determinants of panel attrition to reveal high variability across countries as well as for different waves within one country. Differences were also found when comparing attrition behaviour across different surveys running parallel in the same countries, as was the case for Germany and the United Kingdom (UK). Response rates are found to depend strongly on whether households moved during the sample period and whether the interviewer in the sample period changed. Compared to these two influences, all other characteristics are of minor importance. Despite these different attrition rates, neither is the analysis of income biased, nor is the ranking of national results disturbed.
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Over time, the number of cases available for analysis in prospective longitudinal studies decreases, sometimes drastically.
“Over time, the number of cases available for analysis decreases, sometimes drastically so (e.g., Behr et al. 2005, Alderman et al. 2001).”
From Endogenous Selection Bias: The Problem of Conditioning on a Collider Variable (2014) · cites this paper as Behr et al. 2005
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References 15 · Cited by 163
- Authors
- Behr, A., Bellgardt, E., & Rendtel, U.
- Affiliations
- Freie Universität Berlin (DE)
- Venue
- European Sociological Review
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2005-11-16
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 489-512
- ISSN
- 0266-7215 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-2672
- OpenAlex
- W2067554311
- Cited by
- 163
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 32.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- European Sociological Review (publishedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- European Commission
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Survey Methodology and Nonresponse
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Survey Sampling and Estimation Techniques
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Data Analysis and Archiving
- Keywords
- panel attrition, European Community Household Panel, response rate, representativeness, residential mobility, national comparison, longitudinal survey, Germany, United Kingdom
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