Two Approaches to Design Effects

• Activity Number: 567
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 4, 2010 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
• Author(s): Matthias Ganninger*+ and Sabine Häder and Siegfried Gabler
• Companies: Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences and Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences and Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
• Keywords: design effect ; design-based model-based approach ; ESS ; estimation

Abstract

In complex sample surveys like the European Social Survey (ESS), participating country is responsible for its sample to yield estimators of comparable precision (ESS, 2005b, p.1). The quality of an estimator calculated with data which have arisen from a srs differs from the quality of the same estimator calculated on the basis of a complex sample, given the samples are of the same size.

One way to ensure that the precision of an estimator is independent of the sample design is to plan samples with equal effective sample sizes - a concept which incorporates the design effect (Kish, 1965). For a given sample and study variable, design effects can be thought of under the design-based and the model-based approach. Within the scope of this presentation we will give an overview of the most relevant estimation methods and highlight their merits and drawbacks in practical survey applications.