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.

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