This paper provides a statistical method to analyze patterns of response to mail surveys. Based on the analysis of daily questionnaire returns, as recorded in 38 different social surveys which cover different subject matters, time periods, and populations surveyed, it is concluded that the patterns of response are relatively stable and can be statistically described by the gamma distribution. Based on this finding, researchers could forecast the patterns of response to mail surveys from the mean and variance of the distribution of daily questionnaire returns.
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