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A look at response errors in the labour force survey
Author(s) -
Lemaitre Georges
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
canadian journal of statistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.804
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1708-945X
pISSN - 0319-5724
DOI - 10.2307/3315221
Subject(s) - variety (cybernetics) , perception , survey data collection , psychology , cognition , cognitive psychology , computer science , statistics , mathematics , artificial intelligence , psychiatry , neuroscience
In conducting surveys, survey‐takers impose upon respondents certain cognitive and perceptual tasks the difficulty of which will depend upon a variety of factors. This paper examines the types of questions asked in the Canadian Labour Force Survey with an eye to assessing their “difficulty” and to identifying covariates of difficulty, with respect to both the nature of the information sought and the circumstances of the reinterview. The conclusions are extended to retrospective surveys, where response errors often lead to estimates that are seriously biased.