References:

Ch. 2: Groves et al.,

Frickers lecture notes.

Learn about how and why errors arise in surveys

So we can avoid/mitigate them as much as possible

Characterize the survey process:

(1) from a design perspective, and
(2) from a quality perspective
use these perspectives to define the types of error and
express them in statistical notation

The Current Employment Statistics (CES)

program is interested in measuring the total
number of jobs in existence in the United States
during a specific of month
The sample of employers were asked to report how many
persons were on their payroll in the week of 12th of that
month.
Some employers records are incomplete or out of date

1.

2.

These two inferential steps are central to the needed

characteristics of a survey:
Answers people give must accurately describe
characteristics of the respondents.
The subset of person participating in the survey must
have characteristics similar to those of a larger
population.
*when either of these two conditions is not met, the
survey statistics are subject to error

Design perspective
Thinking about the survey process, as a survey moves
from ideas to concrete actions
From identifying the ideas of interests to coming up with the
specific questions to ask
From identifying the population of interest to collecting the
data and making necessary adjustments

Quality perspective
A taxonomy to distinguish survey designs by major
sources of error

Construct: How many new jobs were created in the

US in the last month?
Measurement: How many new jobs were created in
your company in the last month? By new jobs, we
mean
Response: Respondent contacts a human resource
person in their firm to obtain the data
Edited Response: Subsequent questions asked about
the type of jobs created.
Using this information, combined with the answer to the first
measurement question, number of new job created in this firm
in the last month calculated

Construct: How many incidents of crime were there in

the past year in the US?
Measurement: During the last year, did you call the
police to report something that happened to you that
you though was a crime?
Response: person think back over the past year come
up with a response
Edited Response: Subsequent questions are asked to
qualify whether the calls were related to crime.
Using this information, combined with the answer to the first
measurement question, number of crimes (as defined in the
survey) that happened to this respondent calculated

Target population: Individuals aged 12 and over,

not on active military service, who reside in non
institutionalized settings
Frame population: US households enumerated
through counties, blocks, listed address, listed
members of each (selected) household
Sample: 42,000 households 76,000 individuals
Respondents: Each person aged 12 or older
reports for self
Postsurvey Adjustments: Missing data estimated
(imputed), nonresponse adjustments, etc.

Target population: Non institutionalized adults in the

continental US (omits Hawaii and Alaska)
Frame population: Continental US adults in a
households with a (landline) telephone
Sample: 500 adults randomly drawn using random
digit dialing based on lists of working area codes and
exchanges
Respondents: one adult randomly selected from the
household
Postsurvey Adjustments: Results adjusted for units
known not to be in the sampling frame (e.g., new
household)