Statistics – Applications
Scientific paper
2008-03-27
Annals of Applied Statistics 2008, Vol. 2, No. 1, 264-285
Statistics
Applications
Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AOAS134 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Ins
Scientific paper
10.1214/07-AOAS134
This paper studies questionnaire design as a formal decision problem, focusing on one element of the design process: skip sequencing. We propose that a survey planner use an explicit loss function to quantify the trade-off between cost and informativeness of the survey and aim to make a design choice that minimizes loss. We pose a choice between three options: ask all respondents about an item of interest, use skip sequencing, thereby asking the item only of respondents who give a certain answer to an opening question, or do not ask the item at all. The first option is most informative but also most costly. The use of skip sequencing reduces respondent burden and the cost of interviewing, but may spread data quality problems across survey items, thereby reducing informativeness. The last option has no cost but is completely uninformative about the item of interest. We show how the planner may choose among these three options in the presence of two inferential problems, item nonresponse and response error.
Manski Charles F.
Molinari Francesca
No associations
LandOfFree
Skip sequencing: A decision problem in questionnaire design does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Skip sequencing: A decision problem in questionnaire design, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Skip sequencing: A decision problem in questionnaire design will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-353738