Variance estimation with hot deck imputation: A simulation study of three methods - ARCHIVED

Complete data methods for estimating the variances of survey estimates are biased when some data are imputed. This paper uses simulation to compare the performance of the model-assisted, the adjusted jackknife, and the multiple imputation methods for estimating the variance of a total when missing items have been imputed using hot deck imputation. The simulation studies the properties of the variance estimates for imputed estimates of totals for the full population and for domains from a single-stage disproportionate stratified sample design when underlying assumptions, such as unbiasedness of the point estimate and item responses being randomly missing within hot deck cells, do not hold. The variance estimators for full population estimates produce confidence intervals with coverage rates near the nominal level even under modest departures from the assumptions, but this finding does not apply for the domain estimates. Coverage is most sensitive to bias in the point estimates. As the simulation demonstrates, even if an imputation method gives almost unbiased estimates for the full population, estimates for domains may be very biased.