Non-response follow-up for business surveys

Articles and reports: 12-001-X202200100006

Description:

In the last two decades, survey response rates have been steadily falling. In that context, it has become increasingly important for statistical agencies to develop and use methods that reduce the adverse effects of non-response on the accuracy of survey estimates. Follow-up of non-respondents may be an effective, albeit time and resource-intensive, remedy for non-response bias. We conducted a simulation study using real business survey data to shed some light on several questions about non-response follow-up. For instance, assuming a fixed non-response follow-up budget, what is the best way to select non-responding units to be followed up? How much effort should be dedicated to repeatedly following up non-respondents until a response is received? Should they all be followed up or a sample of them? If a sample is followed up, how should it be selected? We compared Monte Carlo relative biases and relative root mean square errors under different follow-up sampling designs, sample sizes and non-response scenarios. We also determined an expression for the minimum follow-up sample size required to expend the budget, on average, and showed that it maximizes the expected response rate. A main conclusion of our simulation experiment is that this sample size also appears to approximately minimize the bias and mean square error of the estimates.

Issue Number: 2022001
Author(s): Neusy, Elisabeth; Beaumont, Jean-François; Yung, Wesley; Hidiroglou, Mike; Haziza, David

Main Product: Survey Methodology

FormatRelease dateMore information
HTMLJune 21, 2022
PDFJune 21, 2022