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Is a non-representative convenience sample of adults good enough? Insights from an economic experiment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2025

Sean F. Ellis Open the ORCID record for Sean F. Ellis [Opens in a new window] ,
Olesya M. Savchenko  and
Kent D. Messer
Sean F. Ellis*
Affiliation:
Behavior Change for Good, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 3720 Walnut St., 19104 Philadelphia, PA, USA
Olesya M. Savchenko
Affiliation:
Food and Resource Economics Department, University of Florida, 1183 McCarty Hall A, 32611 Gainesville, FL, USA
Kent D. Messer*
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, 531 S. College Avenue, 19716 Newark, DE, USA
*
e-mail: sfellis@wharton.upenn.edu
messer@udel.edu
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Abstract

Recruitment of representative and generalizable adult samples is a major challenge for researchers conducting economic field experiments. Limited access to representative samples or the high cost of obtaining them often leads to the recruitment of non-representative convenience samples. This research compares the findings from two field experiments involving 860 adults: one from a non-representative in-person convenience sample and one from a representative online counterpart. We find no meaningful differences in the key behaviors of interest between the two samples. These findings contribute to a growing body of literature demonstrating that non-representative convenience samples can be sufficient in certain contexts.

Keywords

Non-representative convenience samplingField experimentsOnline recruitmentRepresentative sampling

JEL classification

C93: Field Experiments B41: Economic Methodology C83: Survey Methods • Sampling Methods
Type
Methodology Paper
Information
Journal of the Economic Science Association , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , December 2023 , pp. 293 - 307
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Economic Science Association 2023.

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