Survey Errors and Survey Costs

by Groves, Robert M.

• ISBN13: 9780471678519
• ISBN10: 0471678511
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-04-30
• Publisher: Wiley-Interscience

Summary

Presents a comprehensive treatment of survey errors and the costs and benefits of alternative survey designs, integrating statistical and social science perspectives on survey design. Considers coverage error, nonresponse error, sampling error, and measurement error, including the effects of interviewers and respondents, the wording of the questionnaire, and mode of data collection. A review of the social science and statistical literatures on survey errors is included, and the relationships between the different types of errors are explored. Presents cost models designed to reduce the various types of errors.

Author Biography

ROBERT M. GROVES, PhD, is presently Program Director (Senior Research Scientist) in the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan, where he also serves as Director in the Institute for Social Research and Professor of Sociology. He also holds a joint appointment as Research Professor at the University of Maryland.

Table of Contents

An Introduction to Survey Errors

Diverse Perspectives on Survey Research

The Themes of Integration: Errors and Costs

The Languages of Error

Classifications of Error Within Survey Statistics

Terminology of Errors in Psychological Measurement

The Language of Errors in Econometrics

Debates About Inferential Errors

Important features of language Differences

Summary: The Tyranny of the Measurable

Summary and Plan of This Book

An Introduction to Survey Costs

Rationale for a Joint Concern About Costs and Errors

Use of Cost and Error Models in Sample Design

Criticisms of Cost-Error Modeling to Guide Survey Decisions

Nonlinear Cost Models Often Apply to Practical Survey Administration

Survey Cost Models are Inherently Discontinuous

Cost Models Often Have Stochastic Features

Domains of Applicability of Cost Models Must Be Specified

Simulation Studies Might Be Best Suited to Design Decisions

Is Time Money?

Summary: Cost Models and Survey Errors

Costs and Errors of Covering the Population

Definitions of Populations Relevant to the Survey

Coverage Error in Descriptive Statistics

An Approach to Coverage Error in Analytic Statistics

Components of Coverage Error

Coverage Problems with the Target Population of Households

Measurement of and Adjustments for Noncoverage Error

Survey Cost Issues Involving Coverage Error

Summary

Nonresponse in Sample Surveys

Nonresponse Rates

Response Rate Calculation

Temporal Change in Response Rates

Item Missing Data

Statistical Treatment of Nonresponse in Surveys

Summary

Probing the Causes of Nonresponse and Efforts to Reduce Nonresponse

Empricial Correlates of Survey Participation

Efforts by Survey Methodologists to Reduce Refusals

Sociological Concepts Relevant to Survey Nonresponse

Psychological Attributes of Nonrespondents

Summary

Costs and Errors Arising from Sampling

Introduction

The nature of Sampling Error

Measuring Sampling Error

Four Effects of the Design on Sampling Error

The Effect of Nonsampling Errors on Sampling Error Estimates

Measuring Sampling Errors on Sample Means and Proportions from Complex Samples

The Debate on Reflecting the Sample Design in Estimating Analytic Statistics

Reflecting the Sample Design When Estimating Complex Statistics

Summary

Empirical Estimation of Survey Measurement Error

A First Estimation of Observational Errors Versus Errors of Nonobservation

Laboratory Experiments Resembling the Survey Interview

Measures External to the Survey

Randomized Assignment of Measurement Procedures to Sample Persons

Repeated measurements of the Same Persons

Summary of Individual Techniques of Measurement Errors Estimation

Combinations of Design Features

Summary

The Interviewer as a Source of Survey Measurement Error

Alternative Views on the Role of the Observer

The Roles of the Survey Interviewer

Designs for Measuring Interview Variance

Interviewer Effects in Personal Interview Surveys

Interviewer Effects in Centralized Telephone Surveys

Explaining the Magnitude of Interviewer Effects

Summary of Research on Interviewer Variance

Measurement of Interviewer Compliance With Training Guidelines

Experiments in Manipulating Interviewer Behavior

Social Psych

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