Not Willing, Not Able: Causes of Measurement Error in Business Surveys

Deirdre Giesen and Tony Hak

ERIM Report Series Research in Management from Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam

Abstract: National statistical institutes must collect accurate data from businesses in a timely and cost-effective way and without causing too much response burden. An adequate design of the information request is critical in achieving this goal. This paper describes the lessons we have learned about the design of business survey questionnaires from a thorough evaluation of the questionnaires of a typical business survey for official statistics, the Structural Business Survey. The paper presents a framework for understanding factors that contribute to missing and inaccurate data and draws a number of conclusions regarding how the design of business surveys can be improved to take these factors into account.

Keywords: data collection; establishment surveys; response process (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C81 C83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-04-16
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