Handbook Of Nonresponse In Household Surveys

This volume presents an all-inclusive guide to the problem of nonresponse in household surveys, providing an overview of the theory while also describing practical implications. The book begins with a general overview of the nonresponse problem, outlining existing sources of error and guidelines for calculating response rates according to various international standards. The theoretical content of survey sampling is also explored and presented in a chapter along with a discussion on nonresponse on survey estimates and missing data mechanisms. Subsequent chapters provide guidance on reducing and analyzing nonresponse, the concept of representativity, weighting adjustment techniques, and approaches for obtaining additional information from nonrespondents.

Each chapter organizes the presented information in uniform components. Following an introduction, a description of the key theory and formulae is presented. Next, the discussed theory is applied to a real data set and accompanied with vivid descriptions. Example sets are spread throughout each chapter and a summary provides a brief overview of main points and concepts. Real data sets are used throughout the book and additional data sets available on the book's related Web site can be easily worked with using the Stata or SPSS software packages.

Jelke Bethlehem, PhD, is Senior Survey Methodologist in the Division of Methodology and Quality at Statistics Netherlands and Professor at the University of Amsterdam. His current research interests include web surveys, computer-assisted survey information collection, graphical techniques in statistics, and the development of user-friendly software for statistical analysis. Dr. Bethlehem is the author of Applied Survey Methods: A Statistical Perspective and coeditor of Computer Assisted Survey Information Collection, both published by Wiley.

Fannie Cobben, PhD, is Project Manager at Statistics Netherlands, focusing on the redesign of household surveys. She has written several published papers on the topics of nonresponse, representativity, and adjustment methods in survey research.

Barry Schouten, PhD, is Senior Methodologist in the Division of Methodology and Quality at Statistics Netherlands. Dr. Schouten's areas of research interest include nonresponse and response bias in mixed-mode surveys, indicators for representativeness of response, and adaptive and responsive survey designs.