With Richard Wiggins
CLS Working paper 2015/3.
This study constitutes the first longitudinal exploration of consent to link survey and administrative data. It relies on a theoretical framework distinguishing between passive, active, consistent and inconsistent consent behaviour. The findings show that, in general, consent behaviours are both passive and consistent. First, consent rates indicate that most respondents behave consistently over time. Secondly, the regression analyses show that for the majority of respondents, consent is not driven by personal convictions but rather depends on the circumstances of the respondent at the time of the interview and on the impact of the interviewers. The findings also show that in longitudinal surveys cross-sectional analyses of consent can be misleading. The changes in the magnitude and in the significance of the results when the temporal dimension of consent is taken into account is a clear indication that consent should be treated as a dynamic phenomenon.
Download paper in PDF