Reducing the response imbalance: Is the accuracy of the survey estimates improved? - ARCHIVED

We present theoretical evidence that efforts during data collection to balance the survey response with respect to selected auxiliary variables will improve the chances for low nonresponse bias in the estimates that are ultimately produced by calibrated weighting. One of our results shows that the variance of the bias – measured here as the deviation of the calibration estimator from the (unrealized) full-sample unbiased estimator – decreases linearly as a function of the response imbalance that we assume measured and controlled continuously over the data collection period. An attractive prospect is thus a lower risk of bias if one can manage the data collection to get low imbalance. The theoretical results are validated in a simulation study with real data from an Estonian household survey.