Improving Surveys with Paradata: Analytic Uses of Process Information

CHAPTER 15

THE EFFECTS OF ERRORS IN PARADATA ON WEIGHTING CLASS ADJUSTMENTS: A SIMULATION STUDY

BRADY T. WEST

Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

15.1 INTRODUCTION

Other chapters in this volume have explored the notion of effective design strategies for the collection of paradata. This chapter specifically considers the use of paradata for postsurvey nonresponse adjustments, which was described further in Chapter 2. Effective design strategies for reducing nonresponse bias will call for the collection of survey process data from both respondents and nonrespondents that are correlated with both key survey variables and response propensity (Bethlehem, 2002). Survey managers can therefore work to identify features of sample units that can be collected for respondents and nonrespondents alike which may also be related to key survey variables and the probability of responding. However, previous studies have suggested that paradata may be prone to error (see Chapter 14), and paradata collection strategies that theoretically could reduce nonresponse bias may be impaired if the collected paradata are of poor quality.

This chapter presents the results of simulation studies designed to examine the effects of varying levels of error in survey paradata on the effectiveness of postsurvey nonresponse adjustments. Specifically, the simulations consider the following survey context, where the objective is to make inference about the proportion ...