Evaluating the impact of alternative edit parameters on data quality

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.

This paper describes a test of two alternative sets of ratio edit and imputation procedures, both using the U.S. Census Bureau's generalized editing and imputation subsystem ("Plain Vanilla") on 1997 Economic Census data. The quality of the edited and imputed data from both sets of procedures were compared - both at the micro and macro level. Discussions followed on how these quantitative methods of comparison gave rise to the recommended changes for the current editing and imputation procedures.