Some Thoughts on Calibration Applications for Multipurpose Estimations

• Activity Number: 671
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 8, 2013 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): Yan Liu*+ and Yuqi Liu
• Companies: Statistics of Income/IRS and The George Washington University
• Keywords: Auxiliary variable ; Composite calibration estimation ; Generalized linear regression ; Multipurpose estimation ; Sample weight ; Weight calibration

Abstract

The linear calibration approach is commonly used to adjust sample weights for multipurpose estimations. Although the linear calibration estimator has many good properties, it has two major limitations. One is the efficiency issue and the other is the convergence issue. Many modified methods have been suggested in the literature, but they do not address both issues at the same time. The modified methods intended for efficiency gain only apply to a single study variable, while modified methods intended for stable estimations for multiple study variables do not offer efficiency gains. In this paper, we first review some modified calibration methods and offer some thoughts about calibration applications to balance efficiency gain and multipurpose use. In particular, we propose a composite calibration weighting method and some modifications of the regular linear calibration method. The proposed methods aim at improving the efficiency for some 'priority' study variables, while still keeping the multipurpose property. Results of a limited simulation study are presented as well.