Analysis

"Probability samples of near-universal frames of households and persons, administered standardized measures, yielding long multivariate data records, and analyzed with statistical procedures reflecting the design – these have been the cornerstones of the empirical social sciences for 75 years. That measurement structure have given the developed world almost all of what we know about our societies and their economies. The stored survey data form a unique historical record. We live now in a different data world than that in which the leadership of statistical agencies and the social sciences were raised. High-dimensional data are ubiquitously being produced from Internet search activities, mobile Internet devices, social media, sensors, retail store scanners, and other devices. Some estimate that these data sources are increasing in size at the rate of 40% per year. Together their sizes swamp that of the probability-based sample surveys. Further, the state of sample surveys in the developed world is not healthy. Falling rates of survey participation are linked with ever-inflated costs of data collection. Despite growing needs for information, the creation of new survey vehicles is hampered by strained budgets for official statistical agencies and social science funders. These combined observations are unprecedented challenges for the basic paradigm of inference in the social and economic sciences. This paper discusses alternative ways forward at this moment in history. "

Using data from a survey of U.S. Census Bureau interviewers, this paper examines whether experienced interviewers achieve higher response rates than inexperienced interviewers, controlling for differences in survey design and attributes of the populations assigned to them. After demonstrating that the relationship is positive and curvilinear, it attempts to explain the mechanisms by which experienced interviewers achieve these rates and elaborate the nature of the relationship. It examines what behaviors and attitudes underlie the higher success, with the hope that they might be instilled in trainees.

The two-stage rejection rule telephone sample design described by Waksberg (1978) is modified to improve the efficiency of telephone surveys of the U.S. Black population. Experimental tests of sample design alternatives demonstrate that: a) use of rough stratification based on telephone exchange names and states; b) use of large cluster definitions (200 and 400 consecutive numbers) at the first stage; and c) rejection rules based on racial status of the household combine to offer improvements in the relative precision of a sample, given fixed resources. Cost and error models are examined to simulate design alternatives.

"Probability samples of near-universal frames of households and persons, administered standardized measures, yielding long multivariate data records, and analyzed with statistical procedures reflecting the design – these have been the cornerstones of the empirical social sciences for 75 years. That measurement structure have given the developed world almost all of what we know about our societies and their economies. The stored survey data form a unique historical record. We live now in a different data world than that in which the leadership of statistical agencies and the social sciences were raised. High-dimensional data are ubiquitously being produced from Internet search activities, mobile Internet devices, social media, sensors, retail store scanners, and other devices. Some estimate that these data sources are increasing in size at the rate of 40% per year. Together their sizes swamp that of the probability-based sample surveys. Further, the state of sample surveys in the developed world is not healthy. Falling rates of survey participation are linked with ever-inflated costs of data collection. Despite growing needs for information, the creation of new survey vehicles is hampered by strained budgets for official statistical agencies and social science funders. These combined observations are unprecedented challenges for the basic paradigm of inference in the social and economic sciences. This paper discusses alternative ways forward at this moment in history. "

Using data from a survey of U.S. Census Bureau interviewers, this paper examines whether experienced interviewers achieve higher response rates than inexperienced interviewers, controlling for differences in survey design and attributes of the populations assigned to them. After demonstrating that the relationship is positive and curvilinear, it attempts to explain the mechanisms by which experienced interviewers achieve these rates and elaborate the nature of the relationship. It examines what behaviors and attitudes underlie the higher success, with the hope that they might be instilled in trainees.

The two-stage rejection rule telephone sample design described by Waksberg (1978) is modified to improve the efficiency of telephone surveys of the U.S. Black population. Experimental tests of sample design alternatives demonstrate that: a) use of rough stratification based on telephone exchange names and states; b) use of large cluster definitions (200 and 400 consecutive numbers) at the first stage; and c) rejection rules based on racial status of the household combine to offer improvements in the relative precision of a sample, given fixed resources. Cost and error models are examined to simulate design alternatives.