| Low response rate: what to do? | |
| Course Leader | Barry Schouten |
| Target Group | - All NSIs staff dealing with data collection facing non-response, either unit non-response where entire units intended to be collected are missing or item non-response where some items of otherwise responding units are missing.
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| Entry Qualifications | - Sound command of English. Participants should be able to make short interventions and to actively participate in discussions
- An academic degree with some knowledge of statistics (social science, statistics, economics), especially multivariate statistics
- Some basic knowledge of survey sampling and statistical modelling.
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| Objective(s) | - The main objective of the courses is to enhance the theoretical and practical knowledge related to the treatment of unit non-response and item non-response. In particular, participants will gain knowledge on weighting techniques in order to deal with unit non-response and imputation techniques in order to deal with item non-response. For unit-nonresponse, participants will also learn about up to date monitoring of data collection and application of adaptive survey designs.
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| Contents | - The course covers both person and household surveys and business surveys;
- The non-response problem. Definition of non-response, causes of non-response, types of non-response (unit, item), calculation of response rates;
- Some mathematical background, models for non-response, effects of non-response on bias, confidence intervals, MCAR (Missing Completely at Random), MAR (Missing at Random), NMAR (Not Missing at Random);
- How to detect non-response bias, role of auxiliary information. Selection of important auxiliary variables;
- Monitoring of unit-nonresponse and adaptive survey designs;
- Correcting afterwards for unit non-response, weighting adjustment techniques (post-stratification, linear weighting, multiplicative weighting, calibration, propensity score method), central-question-approach, re-sampling non-respondents;
- Correcting afterwards for item non-response: mean/mode imputation, (hot-deck and cold-deck) donor imputation, regression imputation, predictive mean matching, longitudinal imputation (panel data), last information carry forward;
- Communication to different user groups on the level of non-response, on the correction methods applied and on the impact on accuracy of results.
- Integration of the treatment of unit- and item-nonresponse methods
- Gaining experience through realistic, practical computer exercises
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| Expected Outcome | - Good understanding of the non-response problem. Knowledge of correction methods for unit and item non-response, and the ability to apply these methods in practice.
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| Training Methods | - Lectures about non-response problems and correcting methods for unit and item non-response
- Some practical cases
- Practical exercises based on real data sets
- Reading material (course books + additional papers)
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| Required Reading | None |
| Suggested Reading | - Jelke Bethlehem, Fannie Cobben & Barry Schouten (2011), Handbook of Non-response in Household Surveys. Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ
- Little, R.J.A. and D.B. Rubin (2002), Statistical Analysis with Missing Data (second edition). John Wiley & Sons, New York.
- Schouten, B., Peytchev, A., Wagner, J. (2017), Adaptive Survey Design, Chapmann & Hall
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| Required Preparation | Participants are invited to sketch non-response in their own organisation, both unit non-response as well as item non-response: magnitude, treatment, etc. Participants are also invited to present their own survey case studies and list questions they may have. These will receive extra attention in the course. |
Trainer(s)/
Lecturer(s) | Prof. dr. Barry Schouten (Statistics Netherlands) Prof. dr. Ton de Waal (Statistics Netherlands) |
