Nonresponse adjustments with misspecified models in stratified designs - ARCHIVED

Adjusting the base weights using weighting classes is a standard approach for dealing with unit nonresponse. A common approach is to create nonresponse adjustments that are weighted by the inverse of the assumed response propensity of respondents within weighting classes under a quasi-randomization approach. Little and Vartivarian (2003) questioned the value of weighting the adjustment factor. In practice the models assumed are misspecified, so it is critical to understand the impact of weighting might have in this case. This paper describes the effects on nonresponse adjusted estimates of means and totals for population and domains computed using the weighted and unweighted inverse of the response propensities in stratified simple random sample designs. The performance of these estimators under different conditions such as different sample allocation, response mechanism, and population structure is evaluated. The findings show that for the scenarios considered the weighted adjustment has substantial advantages for estimating totals and using an unweighted adjustment may lead to serious biases except in very limited cases. Furthermore, unlike the unweighted estimates, the weighted estimates are not sensitive to how the sample is allocated.