Using paradata gathered from the 11-nation Survey of
Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE),
this paper examines the impact of the first contact
attempt and the first contact properties, respectively,
on contact and response efficiency using logistic
multilevel models. We find that despite the different
sample frames and interviewer compensation structure
between countries, there are no considerable country
effects with respect to making contact, once
interviewer effects are controlled. Moreover, results
point to an increased efficiency associated with
evenings especially on Sundays, at least on the very
first contact attempt. For attempts that result in initial
contact, Saturday afternoons are most likely to
eventually lead to completed interviews, followed by
initial contact on weekdays during the daytime. We
hypothesize that this may be due to the SHARE sample
being composed of people aged 50 and over.