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Does more balanced survey response imply less non‐response bias?
Author(s) -
Schouten Barry,
Cobben Fannie,
Lundquist Peter,
Wagner James
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of the royal statistical society: series a (statistics in society)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.103
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1467-985X
pISSN - 0964-1998
DOI - 10.1111/rssa.12152
Subject(s) - response bias , econometrics , non response bias , adaptive response , range (aeronautics) , statistics , computer science , mathematics , engineering , biology , aerospace engineering , genetics
Summary Recently, various indicators have been proposed as indirect measures of non‐response error in surveys. They employ auxiliary variables, external to the survey, to detect non‐representative or unbalanced response. A class of designs known as adaptive survey designs maximizes these indicators by applying different treatments to different subgroups. The natural question is whether the decrease in non‐response bias that is caused by adaptive survey designs could also be achieved by non‐response adjustment methods. We discuss this question and provide theoretical and empirical considerations, supported by a range of household and business surveys. We find evidence that more balanced response coincides with less non‐response bias, even after adjustment.