Correcting for non-response in indirect sampling - ARCHIVED

This paper discusses in detail issues dealing with the technical aspects of designing and conducting surveys. It is intended for an audience of survey methodologists.

In practice, a list of the desired collection units is not always available. Instead, a list of different units that are somehow related to the collection units may be provided, thus producing two related populations, UA and UB. An estimate for UB needs to be created, however, the sampling frame provided is only for the UA population.

One solution for this problem is to select a sample from UA (sA) and produce an estimate for UB using the existing relationship between the two populations. This process may be referred to as indirect sampling. To assign a selection probability, or an estimation weight, for the survey units, Lavallée (1995) developed the generalized weight share method (GWSM). The GWSM produces an estimation weight that basically constitutes an average of the sampling weights of the units in sA.

This paper discusses the types of non-response associated with indirect sampling and the possible estimation problems that can occur in the application of the GWSM.