New Ideas in Sampling for Surveys in the Developing World

• Activity Number: 679
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 13, 2015 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
• Author(s): Stephanie Eckman* and Jill Dever and Kristen Himelein
• Companies: Institute for Employment Research and RTI International and The World Bank
• Keywords: sampling ; coverage ; geocoding ; quota sampling ; random walk

Abstract

Many developed countries have high quality census data or population registers that can be used to build sampling frames. In other countries, census data is out of date or traditional sampling methods are impractical or dangerous. Problems may occur at the first design stage, in which clusters are selected with probability proportional to size, due to out of date or unavailable census data. Problems can also arise at later design stages, such as persons or households selected within the clusters, because no register data are available or listing households within the cluster is not feasible. This chapter describes the options that are available to samplers in such situations. Techniques to be discussed include: random geographic cluster sampling and nighttime lights at the first stage; and reverse geocoding, random walk, respondent-driven sampling, and quota sampling at a subsequent stage. For each method, we describe the statistical properties and note the pros and cons. Throughout, we suggest the best sampling techniques as ones that minimize interviewer discretion and contain built-in opportunities for verification of interviewer performance.