Since January 2020, the COVID-19 crisis has affected everyday life around the world, and rigorous government lockdown restrictions have been implemented to prevent the further spread of the pandemic. The consequences of the corona crisis and the associated lockdown policies for public health, social life, and the economy are vast. In view of the rapidly changing situation during this crisis, policymakers require timely data and research results that allow for informed decisions. Addressing the requirement for adequate databases to assess people’s  life and work situations during the pandemic, the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) developed the High-frequency Online Personal Panel (HOPP). The HOPP study started in May 2020 and is based on a random sample of individuals drawn from the administrative data of the Federal Employment Agency in Germany, containing information on all labour market participants except civil servants and self-employed. The main goal of the HOPP study is to assess the short-term as well as long-term changes in people’s social life and working situation in Germany due to the corona pandemic. To assess individual dynamics the HOPP collected data on a monthly (wave  one to four) and bi-monthly (wave five to seven) basis. Furthermore, respondents were divided into four groups. The different groups of a new wave were invited to the survey at weekly intervals (wave two to four) or bi-weekly intervals (wave five to seven). This gives us the advantage of being able to provide weekly data while each participant only had to participate on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. In this article, we delineate the HOPP study in terms of its main goals and features, topics, and survey design. Furthermore, we provide a summary of results derived from HOPP and the future prospects of the study.

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Even small monetary incentives, e.g., a one-dollar bill in a postal invitation letter, can increase the response rate in a web survey. However, in the euro currency area, the smallest amount of monetary incentive for a postal invitation is a five-euro bill, which is costly. As such, we conducted a random experiment with prepaid stamp and postcard incentives as affordable alternatives. We compare the effect of our experimental groups with a control group in terms of response rates, response rates in a subsequent wave, data linkage consent, and data collection costs. Compared with the control group, the postcard incentive has no effect on our outcomes except overall costs. Using a prepaid stamp incentive increases the response rate overall but with different effect sizes for subgroups. We find no effect of stamp incentives on response rates in a subsequent wave or data linkage consent.

This study reports on a mode design experiment in which a Web starting mode was introduced for the first time in the Institute for Employment Research Establishment Panel. A cross‐sectional sample of establishments was randomized to be interviewed via the traditional face‐to‐face procedure or a Web‐first sequential mixed‐mode design with face‐to‐face follow‐ups. Extensive administrative data were used to estimate and compare nonresponse bias at multiple phases of the sequential mixed‐mode design, and assess the relationship between mode design and establishment characteristics on the likelihood of response. We show that the final response rates and nonresponse bias were similar between both mode designs, but these results contrasted with the results at each phase of the sequential mode design. Larger establishments were significantly more likely to respond in the Web mode compared to the face‐to‐face mode. A moderate cost savings (of about 14% per respondent) was estimated for the Web‐first sequential mode design.