Journal of Electoral Studies

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Home Issues Backissues Volume 31, No.2 The Nonresponse Problems of the 2001 TEDS Survey

The Nonresponse Problems of the 2001 TEDS Survey

Yung-Tai Hung
2003 / 11
Volume 10, No.2

pp.37-58
10.6612/tjes.2003.10.02.37-58
Paper

Abstract

The study looks into the nonresponse problems of the 2001 TEDS survey, particularly in factors related to the failure of data collection and the effect of substitutes. Data analyses include the demographic characteristics of the sample originally selected, nonresponse statistics during different waves of interview attempts, the effect of substitutes, the follow-up interviews, and the differences of survey results from those samples. The results indicate that the main difference between complete interviews and those of unit-nonresponses lay on respondents’age and their related characteristics. There is no significant difference between these two groups on political attitudes. The most frequent cause for unit-nonresponse is failure to locate the selected respondent after reaching their dwelling houses, especially for those of younger respondents. Refusals are not correlated with respondents’ gender or age, but do correlate with areas and respondents’ life style. Substitutes are similar to those of complete interviews, hence fail to fulfill their original goals, i.e., replacing those hard to reach or those sampled respondents with high risk of nonresponse. The study suggests that for the future survey it is better to inflate sample size at the beginning, and try hard on follow-up interviews. Using substitutes will not correct the bias caused by unit-nonresponses.

Keywords

sampling frame

sample representativeness

survey nonresponse

substitute samples

follow-up interviews

sample size inflation