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All (84) (0 to 10 of 84 results)

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200001
    Description: Cochran’s rule states that a standard (Wald) two-sided 95% confidence interval around a sample mean drawn from a population with positive skewness is reasonable when the sample size is greater than 25 times the square of the skewness coefficient of the population. We investigate whether a variant of this crude rule applies for a proportion estimated from a stratified simple random sample.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200002
    Description: This paper investigates whether survey data quality fluctuates over the day. After laying out the argument theoretically, panel data from the Survey of Unemployed Workers in New Jersey are analyzed. Several indirect indicators of response error are investigated, including item nonresponse, interview completion time, rounding, and measures of the quality of time diary data. The evidence that we assemble for a time of day of interview effect is weak or nonexistent. Item nonresponse and the probability that interview completion time is among the 5% shortest appear to increase in the evening, but a more thorough assessment requires instrumental variables.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200003
    Description: The optimum sample allocation in stratified sampling is one of the basic issues of survey methodology. It is a procedure of dividing the overall sample size into strata sample sizes in such a way that for given sampling designs in strata the variance of the stratified \pi estimator of the population total (or mean) for a given study variable assumes its minimum. In this work, we consider the optimum allocation of a sample, under lower and upper bounds imposed jointly on sample sizes in strata. We are concerned with the variance function of some generic form that, in particular, covers the case of the simple random sampling without replacement in strata. The goal of this paper is twofold. First, we establish (using the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions) a generic form of the optimal solution, the so-called optimality conditions. Second, based on the established optimality conditions, we derive an efficient recursive algorithm, named RNABOX, which solves the allocation problem under study. The RNABOX can be viewed as a generalization of the classical recursive Neyman allocation algorithm, a popular tool for optimum allocation when only upper bounds are imposed on sample strata-sizes. We implement RNABOX in R as a part of our package stratallo which is available from the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) repository.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200004
    Description: While we avoid specifying the parametric relationship between the study variable and covariates, we illustrate the advantage of including a spatial component to better account for the covariates in our models to make Bayesian predictive inference. We treat each unique covariate combination as an individual stratum, then we use small area estimation techniques to make inference about the finite population mean of the continuous response variable. The two spatial models used are the conditional autoregressive and simple conditional autoregressive models. We include the spatial effects by creating the adjacency matrix via the Mahalanobis distance between covariates. We also show how to incorporate survey weights into the spatial models when dealing with probability survey data. We compare the results of two non-spatial models including the Scott-Smith model and the Battese, Harter, and Fuller model to the spatial models. We illustrate the comparison between the aforementioned models with an application using BMI data from eight counties in California. Our goal is to have neighboring strata yield similar predictions, and to increase the difference between strata that are not neighbors. Ultimately, using the spatial models shows less global pooling compared to the non-spatial models, which was the desired outcome.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200005
    Description: Adaptive survey designs (ASDs) tailor recruitment protocols to population subgroups that are relevant to a survey. In recent years, effective ASD optimization has been the topic of research and several applications. However, the performance of an optimized ASD over time is sensitive to time changes in response propensities. How adaptation strategies can adjust to such variation over time is not yet fully understood. In this paper, we propose a robust optimization approach in the context of sequential mixed-mode surveys employing Bayesian analysis. The approach is formulated as a mathematical programming problem that explicitly accounts for uncertainty due to time change. ASD decisions can then be made by considering time-dependent variation in conditional mode response propensities and between-mode correlations in response propensities. The approach is demonstrated using a case study: the 2014-2017 Dutch Health Survey. We evaluate the sensitivity of ASD performance to 1) the budget level and 2) the length of applicable historic time-series data. We find there is only a moderate dependence on the budget level and the dependence on historic data is moderated by the amount of seasonality during the year.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200006
    Description: As mixed-mode designs become increasingly popular, their effects on data quality have attracted much scholarly attention. Most studies focused on the bias properties of mixed-mode designs; few of them have investigated whether mixed-mode designs have heterogeneous variance structures across modes. While many characteristics of mixed-mode designs, such as varied interviewer usage, systematic differences in respondents, varying levels of social desirability bias, among others, may lead to heterogeneous variances in mode-specific point estimates of population means, this study specifically investigates whether interviewer variances remain consistent across different modes in mixed-mode studies. To address this research question, we utilize data collected from two distinct study designs. In the first design, when interviewers are responsible for either face-to-face or telephone mode, we examine whether there are mode differences in interviewer variances for 1) sensitive political questions, 2) international items, 3) and item missing indicators on international items, using the Arab Barometer wave 6 Jordan data. In the second design, we draw on Health and Retirement Study (HRS) 2016 core survey data to examine the question on three topics when interviewers are responsible for both modes. The topics cover 1) the CESD depression scale, 2) interviewer observations, and 3) the physical activity scale. To account for the lack of interpenetrated designs in both data sources, we include respondent-level covariates in our models. We find significant differences in interviewer variances on one item (twelve items in total) in the Arab Barometer study; whereas for HRS, the results are three out of eighteen. Overall, we find the magnitude of the interviewer variances larger in FTF than TEL on sensitive items. We conduct simulations to understand the power to detect mode effects in the typically modest interviewer sample sizes.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200007
    Description: The capture-recapture method can be applied to measure the coverage of administrative and big data sources, in official statistics. In its basic form, it involves the linkage of two sources while assuming a perfect linkage and other standard assumptions. In practice, linkage errors arise and are a potential source of bias, where the linkage is based on quasi-identifiers. These errors include false positives and false negatives, where the former arise when linking a pair of records from different units, and the latter arise when not linking a pair of records from the same unit. So far, the existing solutions have resorted to costly clerical reviews, or they have made the restrictive conditional independence assumption. In this work, these requirements are relaxed by modeling the number of links from a record instead. The same approach may be taken to estimate the linkage accuracy without clerical reviews, when linking two sources that each have some undercoverage.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200008
    Description: When seeking to release public use files for confidential data, statistical agencies can generate fully synthetic data. We propose an approach for making fully synthetic data from surveys collected with complex sampling designs. Our approach adheres to the general strategy proposed by Rubin (1993). Specifically, we generate pseudo-populations by applying the weighted finite population Bayesian bootstrap to account for survey weights, take simple random samples from those pseudo-populations, estimate synthesis models using these simple random samples, and release simulated data drawn from the models as public use files. To facilitate variance estimation, we use the framework of multiple imputation with two data generation strategies. In the first, we generate multiple data sets from each simple random sample. In the second, we generate a single synthetic data set from each simple random sample. We present multiple imputation combining rules for each setting. We illustrate the repeated sampling properties of the combining rules via simulation studies, including comparisons with synthetic data generation based on pseudo-likelihood methods. We apply the proposed methods to a subset of data from the American Community Survey.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200009
    Description: Many studies face the problem of comparing estimates obtained with different survey methodology, including differences in frames, measurement instruments, and modes of delivery. The problem arises in multimode surveys and in surveys that are redesigned. Major redesign of survey processes could affect survey estimates systematically, and it is important to quantify and adjust for such discontinuities between the designs to ensure comparability of estimates over time. We propose a small area estimation approach to reconcile two sets of survey estimates, and apply it to two surveys in the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP), which monitors recreational fishing along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. We develop a log-normal model for the estimates from the two surveys, accounting for temporal dynamics through regression on population size and state-by-wave seasonal factors, and accounting in part for changing coverage properties through regression on wireless telephone penetration. Using the estimated design variances, we develop a regression model that is analytically consistent with the log-normal mean model. We use the modeled design variances in a Fay-Herriot small area estimation procedure to obtain empirical best linear unbiased predictors of the reconciled estimates of fishing effort (requiring predictions at new sets of covariates), and provide an asymptotically valid mean square error approximation.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200010
    Description: Recent work in survey domain estimation has shown that incorporating a priori assumptions about orderings of population domain means reduces the variance of the estimators and provides smaller confidence intervals with good coverage. Here we show how partial ordering assumptions allow design-based estimation of sample means in domains for which the sample size is zero, with conservative variance estimates and confidence intervals. Order restrictions can also substantially improve estimation and inference in small-size domains. Examples with well-known survey data sets demonstrate the utility of the methods. Code to implement the examples using the R package csurvey is given in the appendix.
    Release date: 2024-12-20
Stats in brief (4)

Stats in brief (4) ((4 results))

  • Stats in brief: 89-20-00062024003
    Description: This video is intended for professionals, policymakers, and researchers who are interested in understanding how data linkage can be used to gain deeper insights into various issues. It demonstrates how combining data from different sources can help address gaps in information, leading to better-informed policies and improved outcomes.
    Release date: 2024-11-25

  • Stats in brief: 89-20-00062024001
    Description: This short video explains how it can be very effective for all levels of governments and organizations that serve communities to use disaggregated data to make evidence-informed public policy decisions. By using disaggregated data, policymakers are able to design more appropriate and effective policies that meet the needs of each diverse and unique Canadian.
    Release date: 2024-07-16

  • Stats in brief: 89-20-00062024002
    Description: This short video explains how the use of disaggregated data can help policymakers to develop more targeted and effective policies by identifying the unique needs and challenges faced by different demographic groups.
    Release date: 2024-07-16

  • Stats in brief: 11-637-X
    Description: This product presents data on the Sustainable Development Goals. They present an overview of the 17 Goals through infographics by leveraging data currently available to report on Canada’s progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
    Release date: 2024-01-25
Articles and reports (80)

Articles and reports (80) (0 to 10 of 80 results)

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200001
    Description: Cochran’s rule states that a standard (Wald) two-sided 95% confidence interval around a sample mean drawn from a population with positive skewness is reasonable when the sample size is greater than 25 times the square of the skewness coefficient of the population. We investigate whether a variant of this crude rule applies for a proportion estimated from a stratified simple random sample.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200002
    Description: This paper investigates whether survey data quality fluctuates over the day. After laying out the argument theoretically, panel data from the Survey of Unemployed Workers in New Jersey are analyzed. Several indirect indicators of response error are investigated, including item nonresponse, interview completion time, rounding, and measures of the quality of time diary data. The evidence that we assemble for a time of day of interview effect is weak or nonexistent. Item nonresponse and the probability that interview completion time is among the 5% shortest appear to increase in the evening, but a more thorough assessment requires instrumental variables.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200003
    Description: The optimum sample allocation in stratified sampling is one of the basic issues of survey methodology. It is a procedure of dividing the overall sample size into strata sample sizes in such a way that for given sampling designs in strata the variance of the stratified \pi estimator of the population total (or mean) for a given study variable assumes its minimum. In this work, we consider the optimum allocation of a sample, under lower and upper bounds imposed jointly on sample sizes in strata. We are concerned with the variance function of some generic form that, in particular, covers the case of the simple random sampling without replacement in strata. The goal of this paper is twofold. First, we establish (using the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions) a generic form of the optimal solution, the so-called optimality conditions. Second, based on the established optimality conditions, we derive an efficient recursive algorithm, named RNABOX, which solves the allocation problem under study. The RNABOX can be viewed as a generalization of the classical recursive Neyman allocation algorithm, a popular tool for optimum allocation when only upper bounds are imposed on sample strata-sizes. We implement RNABOX in R as a part of our package stratallo which is available from the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) repository.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200004
    Description: While we avoid specifying the parametric relationship between the study variable and covariates, we illustrate the advantage of including a spatial component to better account for the covariates in our models to make Bayesian predictive inference. We treat each unique covariate combination as an individual stratum, then we use small area estimation techniques to make inference about the finite population mean of the continuous response variable. The two spatial models used are the conditional autoregressive and simple conditional autoregressive models. We include the spatial effects by creating the adjacency matrix via the Mahalanobis distance between covariates. We also show how to incorporate survey weights into the spatial models when dealing with probability survey data. We compare the results of two non-spatial models including the Scott-Smith model and the Battese, Harter, and Fuller model to the spatial models. We illustrate the comparison between the aforementioned models with an application using BMI data from eight counties in California. Our goal is to have neighboring strata yield similar predictions, and to increase the difference between strata that are not neighbors. Ultimately, using the spatial models shows less global pooling compared to the non-spatial models, which was the desired outcome.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200005
    Description: Adaptive survey designs (ASDs) tailor recruitment protocols to population subgroups that are relevant to a survey. In recent years, effective ASD optimization has been the topic of research and several applications. However, the performance of an optimized ASD over time is sensitive to time changes in response propensities. How adaptation strategies can adjust to such variation over time is not yet fully understood. In this paper, we propose a robust optimization approach in the context of sequential mixed-mode surveys employing Bayesian analysis. The approach is formulated as a mathematical programming problem that explicitly accounts for uncertainty due to time change. ASD decisions can then be made by considering time-dependent variation in conditional mode response propensities and between-mode correlations in response propensities. The approach is demonstrated using a case study: the 2014-2017 Dutch Health Survey. We evaluate the sensitivity of ASD performance to 1) the budget level and 2) the length of applicable historic time-series data. We find there is only a moderate dependence on the budget level and the dependence on historic data is moderated by the amount of seasonality during the year.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200006
    Description: As mixed-mode designs become increasingly popular, their effects on data quality have attracted much scholarly attention. Most studies focused on the bias properties of mixed-mode designs; few of them have investigated whether mixed-mode designs have heterogeneous variance structures across modes. While many characteristics of mixed-mode designs, such as varied interviewer usage, systematic differences in respondents, varying levels of social desirability bias, among others, may lead to heterogeneous variances in mode-specific point estimates of population means, this study specifically investigates whether interviewer variances remain consistent across different modes in mixed-mode studies. To address this research question, we utilize data collected from two distinct study designs. In the first design, when interviewers are responsible for either face-to-face or telephone mode, we examine whether there are mode differences in interviewer variances for 1) sensitive political questions, 2) international items, 3) and item missing indicators on international items, using the Arab Barometer wave 6 Jordan data. In the second design, we draw on Health and Retirement Study (HRS) 2016 core survey data to examine the question on three topics when interviewers are responsible for both modes. The topics cover 1) the CESD depression scale, 2) interviewer observations, and 3) the physical activity scale. To account for the lack of interpenetrated designs in both data sources, we include respondent-level covariates in our models. We find significant differences in interviewer variances on one item (twelve items in total) in the Arab Barometer study; whereas for HRS, the results are three out of eighteen. Overall, we find the magnitude of the interviewer variances larger in FTF than TEL on sensitive items. We conduct simulations to understand the power to detect mode effects in the typically modest interviewer sample sizes.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200007
    Description: The capture-recapture method can be applied to measure the coverage of administrative and big data sources, in official statistics. In its basic form, it involves the linkage of two sources while assuming a perfect linkage and other standard assumptions. In practice, linkage errors arise and are a potential source of bias, where the linkage is based on quasi-identifiers. These errors include false positives and false negatives, where the former arise when linking a pair of records from different units, and the latter arise when not linking a pair of records from the same unit. So far, the existing solutions have resorted to costly clerical reviews, or they have made the restrictive conditional independence assumption. In this work, these requirements are relaxed by modeling the number of links from a record instead. The same approach may be taken to estimate the linkage accuracy without clerical reviews, when linking two sources that each have some undercoverage.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200008
    Description: When seeking to release public use files for confidential data, statistical agencies can generate fully synthetic data. We propose an approach for making fully synthetic data from surveys collected with complex sampling designs. Our approach adheres to the general strategy proposed by Rubin (1993). Specifically, we generate pseudo-populations by applying the weighted finite population Bayesian bootstrap to account for survey weights, take simple random samples from those pseudo-populations, estimate synthesis models using these simple random samples, and release simulated data drawn from the models as public use files. To facilitate variance estimation, we use the framework of multiple imputation with two data generation strategies. In the first, we generate multiple data sets from each simple random sample. In the second, we generate a single synthetic data set from each simple random sample. We present multiple imputation combining rules for each setting. We illustrate the repeated sampling properties of the combining rules via simulation studies, including comparisons with synthetic data generation based on pseudo-likelihood methods. We apply the proposed methods to a subset of data from the American Community Survey.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200009
    Description: Many studies face the problem of comparing estimates obtained with different survey methodology, including differences in frames, measurement instruments, and modes of delivery. The problem arises in multimode surveys and in surveys that are redesigned. Major redesign of survey processes could affect survey estimates systematically, and it is important to quantify and adjust for such discontinuities between the designs to ensure comparability of estimates over time. We propose a small area estimation approach to reconcile two sets of survey estimates, and apply it to two surveys in the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP), which monitors recreational fishing along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. We develop a log-normal model for the estimates from the two surveys, accounting for temporal dynamics through regression on population size and state-by-wave seasonal factors, and accounting in part for changing coverage properties through regression on wireless telephone penetration. Using the estimated design variances, we develop a regression model that is analytically consistent with the log-normal mean model. We use the modeled design variances in a Fay-Herriot small area estimation procedure to obtain empirical best linear unbiased predictors of the reconciled estimates of fishing effort (requiring predictions at new sets of covariates), and provide an asymptotically valid mean square error approximation.
    Release date: 2024-12-20

  • Articles and reports: 12-001-X202400200010
    Description: Recent work in survey domain estimation has shown that incorporating a priori assumptions about orderings of population domain means reduces the variance of the estimators and provides smaller confidence intervals with good coverage. Here we show how partial ordering assumptions allow design-based estimation of sample means in domains for which the sample size is zero, with conservative variance estimates and confidence intervals. Order restrictions can also substantially improve estimation and inference in small-size domains. Examples with well-known survey data sets demonstrate the utility of the methods. Code to implement the examples using the R package csurvey is given in the appendix.
    Release date: 2024-12-20