Hot deck imputation for the response model

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.

Hot deck imputation, in which missing items are replaced with values from respondents, is often used in survey sampling. A model supporting such procedures is the model in which response probabilities are assumed equal within imputation cells. In this paper, an efficient version of hot deck imputation is described, as are the variance of the efficient version derived under the cell response model and an approximation to the fully efficient procedure in which a small number of values are imputed for each non-respondent, respectively. Variance estimation procedures are presented and illustrated in a Monte Carlo study.