Methods for Exploratory Assessment of Consent-to-Link in a Household Survey

• Activity Number: 413
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 11, 2015 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
• Author(s): Scott Fricker* and John L. Eltinge and Daniel Yang
• Companies: Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Keywords: administrative record data ; burden reduction ; incomplete data ; informed consent ; propensity model

Abstract

There is increasing interest in linking survey data to administrative records, to reduce respondent burden and to enhance the amount and quality of information available on sample respondents. Guiding such efforts is a growing empirical literature examining factors that impact respondents' consent decisions and the success of linkage attempts, as well as evaluations of potential differences between consenting and non-consenting respondents. In this paper we explore methods for assessing consent propensity and consent bias using data from the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey. We investigate the relative impacts of demographic, socio-economic, and attitudinal variables on respondent's consent-to-link propensities. We then analyze potential consent-to-link biases in mean and quantile estimates of several economic variables, by comparing different propensity-weighted estimates, and comparing estimates from consenting and non-consenting respondents. We contrast several estimation approaches, and discuss implications of our findings for consent-propensity assessments and approaches to minimize risks of consent-to-link bias.