This paper reports the general results of work undertaken by U.S. Bureau of the Census staff. The views expressed are attributable to the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Bureau of the Census.

Nonresponse bias is an important concern for longitudinal surveys such as the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Previous panels started with nonresponse rates around 7.5% in the first wave and climbed to around 20% by the eighth wave. We are making changes to the 1996 panel that are expected to increase nonresponse rates: the panel length will increase to four years, we will introduce computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI), and the panel size will be larger than previous panels (so many interviews will not have previous experience with the SIPP). The U.S. Census Bureau has initiated several projects with the goal of reducing nonresponse bias. This paper briefly describes these projects.