News

3 September 2001

Interviewing for Wave 1 of the HILDA Survey officially commenced on August 24 in Sydney. Interviewer training is currently underway and will be complete by September 11. This means that all 170 interviewers or so being used on this project will be in the field by September 12.

14 August 2001

All four survey instruments to be used during Wave 1 have now been finalised and can be viewed and/or downloaded from the Survey Instruments page.

9 August 2001

The proposed survey design for HILDA allowed for proxy interviews to be conducted in instances where it proved impossible to make contact with a particular household member. We have, however, had to abandon this strategy. FaCS were uncomfortable with conducting proxy interviews without first ensuring we had obtained informed consent from the persons being proxied. Practical difficulties with obtaining such consent have thus led to a decision to abandon use of proxy interviews.

This puts us at odds with the practice used by in the British Household Panel Survey, but in line with the approach used in the German Socio-Economic Panel.

30 July - 5 August 2001

1. Wave 1 Dress Rehearsal
Interviewing for the HILDA Dress Rehearsal ceased on 9th July. Involving 16 CDs located mostly in Sydney, a 55% household response rate was achieved. This response rate is calculated as the number of households where at least one interview was obtained as a proportion of all selected dwellings, excluding addresses determined to be out-of-scope.

The response rate in wave 1 is expected to be higher as a result of: (i) a national sample (response rates in Australia are generally lowest in Sydney); (ii) a less concentrated fieldwork period; (iii) reductions in the length of the main survey instrument; (iv) changes in the primary approach letter / brochure; and (v) the introduction of cash incentives.

2. Self-completion Questionnaire
A self-completion questionnaire (SCQ) is now to be administered as part of wave 1 of the HILDA survey. It will cover issues such as health, lifestyle, neighbourhood quality, housing adequacy, satisfaction with family life, social interaction and support, time use, personal and household finances, job characteristics, and combining work and family responsibilities.

3. Respondent Incentives
FaCS has provided additional funding to enable the payment of cash incentives to responding households. All households that participate will now be eligible to receive up to a $50 payment depending on whether all or household members cooperate.

4. Respondent Incentives
The HILDA Survey remains on track to meet its timeline. We are currently finalising the various survey instruments and other survey material. These will be posted on the HILDA website as they are approved.

Interviewer training commences in Sydney on August 22, with other sessions being conducted at different locations around Australia over the following three weeks. Fieldwork for wave 1 of HILDA will commence on August 24, again in Sydney, with other cities and regions gradually following suit. The initial sample comprises 488 regions (CDs) with an average number of 23 dwellings selected per dwelling (though there will be considerable variation around this depending on expected variations in occupancy rates and response rates). The listing of all dwellings within each region is essentially complete.

5. New Discussion Paper Released
The HILDA discussion paper, No. 2/01 - June 2001 by Mark Wooden, is now available on this website. It is entitled Design and Management of a Household Panel Survey: Lessons from the International Experience.