On voluntary and volunteer government surveys in the United States

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Kott, Phillip S.

Affiliations: RTI International, 6110 Executive Blvd., Rockville, MD, USA. E-mail: pkott@RTI.ORG

Abstract: Although many US government surveys are mandatory, most are voluntary and more than a few can be considered volunteer, a number that is likely to increase in the future. We will discuss the repercussions of this on the quality of those surveys and discuss how calibration weighting can be used to limit the potential bias on resulting estimators.

Keywords: Mandatory, nonresponse bias, calibration weighting, selection bias, prediction model, double protection

DOI: 10.3233/SJI-140832

Journal: Statistical Journal of the IAOS, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 249-253, 2014