Census Geocoding for Nonresponse Bias Evaluation in Telephone Surveys.
The threat of nonresponse bias has been increasing with the precipitous decline of survey response rates, particularly in random-digit-dialed (RDD) telephone surveys. Often, researchers have only geographic information for RDD nonresponse cases. To compensate for nonresponse in landline samples, cen...
| Published in: | Public Opinion Quarterly Vol. 76; no. 3; pp. 432 - 453 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Fall2012
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=82329260&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 82329260 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0033362X POQ jtl: Public Opinion Quarterly issn: 0033362X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Fall2012 vid: 76 iid: 3 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 82329260 10.1093/poq/nfs035 ppf: 432 ppct: 21 formats: tig: atl: Census Geocoding for Nonresponse Bias Evaluation in Telephone Surveys. aug: au: Biemer, Paul P. Peytchev, Andy affil: P aul P. B iemer is Distinguished Fellow, Statistics, at RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA, and Associate Director for Survey Research and Development at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA. A ndy P eytchev is a survey methodologist at RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA, and instructor at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA. The authors would like to thank the National Science Foundation for supporting this research through a grant [SES-0818931 to P.P.B. and A.P.]. Appreciation is given to the University of Michigan’s Survey Research Operations Center, which conducted the data augmentation and provided the data used in this study. In addition, the authors wish to thank reviewers for suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript. su: Telephone surveys Response rates Random digit dialing telephone surveys Geographic information systems Research bias Sampling errors Statistical sampling Prevention sug: subj: Telephone surveys Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling Response rates Random digit dialing telephone surveys Geographic information systems Research bias Sampling errors Statistical sampling Prevention ab: The threat of nonresponse bias has been increasing with the precipitous decline of survey response rates, particularly in random-digit-dialed (RDD) telephone surveys. Often, researchers have only geographic information for RDD nonresponse cases. To compensate for nonresponse in landline samples, census demographic information can be appended at varying levels of geographic aggregation for both respondents and nonrespondents. The effectiveness of this approach depends on the error properties of the census geocoding (CG) process; however, to date, this process has never been thoroughly evaluated. In extreme situations, errors in the CG process can do more harm than good for survey estimates. If components of the process can be identified as more susceptible to error, then improvements can be made to enhance the process and its ability to reduce nonresponse bias. Using parameters from an RDD survey, we imposed nonresponse on a face-to-face survey with a much higher response rate in order to evaluate the error in the CG process. This approach provides a gold standard for respondents and nonrespondents, as well as for listed and unlisted telephone numbers. Preliminary findings show that although for some of the demographic variables incorrect matches of unlisted numbers contribute the most to bias in the CG process, surprisingly, bias is also relatively large for correctly matched telephone numbers. This article concludes with a warning for the use of the CG method for nonresponse bias evaluations in surveys, particularly, but not limited to, RDD surveys. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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