The Impact of Privacy and Confidentiality Concerns on Survey Participation: The Case of the 1990 U.S. Census

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between concerns about confidentiality and privacy, on the one hand, and mail returns to the 1990 census, on the other. Such concerns significantly affect mail returns, even when demographic variables known to be related to both concerns and survey participation are controlled. However, their impact is not very large, and the effects of confidentiality and privacy concerns vary for black and white respondents.