I Ran a Nonresponse Follow-Up Survey; Now What Do I Do?

• Activity Number: 83 - Your Invited Poster Evening Entertainment: No Longer Board
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Sunday, July 30, 2017 : 8:30 PM to 10:30 PM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): Phillip Kott*
• Companies: RTI
• Keywords: Residential Energy Consumption Survey ; Calibration Weighting ; Augmented Sample ; Compositing Factor

Abstract

It has become a standard practice to conduct a nonresponse follow-up (NRFU) survey on the unit nonrespondents to a survey. What to do next is not clear. A NRFU survey was conducted for the National Pilot of the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) Virtually all unit nonrespondents to the National Pilot were sent a short mail questionnaire containing 18 key items from the full survey. Two methods of adjusting variables collected on the NRFU for unit nonresponse were compared. Either only the weights for respondents to the full National Pilot survey had their weights calibration adjusted to compensate for nonresponse, or only the NRFU-survey respondents' weights were adjusted for nonresponse using a analogous calibration weighting scheme, while weights for the respondents to the full survey were not adjusted. When the estimates from the two methods were significantly different, the latter was added as a calibration variable when adjusting for unit nonresponse to the full sample. Otherwise, the mean of the two added as a calibration variable when readjusting for nonresponse to the full sample. The theory behind this practice and its repercussions are discussed.