An Assessment of the Utility of a Bayesian Framework to Improve Response Propensity Models in Longitudinal Data

Response propensity (RP) models are widely used in survey research to analyse response processes. One application is to predict sample members who are likely to be survey nonrespondents. The potential nonrespondents can then be targeted using responsive and adaptive strategies with the aim of incre...

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Main Authors: Eliud Kibuchi, Gabriele B Durrant, Olga Maslovskaya, Patrick Sturgis
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: European Survey Research Association 2024-12-01
Series:Survey Research Methods
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/article/view/8188
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author Eliud Kibuchi
Gabriele B Durrant
Olga Maslovskaya
Patrick Sturgis
author_facet Eliud Kibuchi
Gabriele B Durrant
Olga Maslovskaya
Patrick Sturgis
author_sort Eliud Kibuchi
collection DOAJ
description Response propensity (RP) models are widely used in survey research to analyse response processes. One application is to predict sample members who are likely to be survey nonrespondents. The potential nonrespondents can then be targeted using responsive and adaptive strategies with the aim of increasing response rates and reducing survey costs. Generally, however, RP models exhibit low predictive power, which limits their effective application in survey research to improve data collection. This paper explores whether the use of a Bayesian framework can improve the predictions of response propensity models in longitudinal data. In the Bayesian approach existing knowledge regarding model parameters is used to specify prior distributions. In this paper we apply this approach and analyse data from the UK household longitudinal study, Understanding Society (first five waves) and estimate informative priors from previous waves data. We use estimates from RP models fitted to response outcomes from earlier waves as our source for specifying prior distributions. Our findings indicate that conditioning on previous wave data leads to negligible improvement of the response propensity models’ predictive power and discriminative ability.
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spelling doaj-art-e2e72fd9c200446bba73d3a0156c62e52025-02-09T14:16:09ZengEuropean Survey Research AssociationSurvey Research Methods1864-33612024-12-01183An Assessment of the Utility of a Bayesian Framework to Improve Response Propensity Models in Longitudinal DataEliud Kibuchi0Gabriele B Durrant 1Olga Maslovskaya2Patrick Sturgis3University of GlasgowUniversity of Southampton University of Southampton The London School of Economic and Political Science Response propensity (RP) models are widely used in survey research to analyse response processes. One application is to predict sample members who are likely to be survey nonrespondents. The potential nonrespondents can then be targeted using responsive and adaptive strategies with the aim of increasing response rates and reducing survey costs. Generally, however, RP models exhibit low predictive power, which limits their effective application in survey research to improve data collection. This paper explores whether the use of a Bayesian framework can improve the predictions of response propensity models in longitudinal data. In the Bayesian approach existing knowledge regarding model parameters is used to specify prior distributions. In this paper we apply this approach and analyse data from the UK household longitudinal study, Understanding Society (first five waves) and estimate informative priors from previous waves data. We use estimates from RP models fitted to response outcomes from earlier waves as our source for specifying prior distributions. Our findings indicate that conditioning on previous wave data leads to negligible improvement of the response propensity models’ predictive power and discriminative ability. https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/article/view/8188response propensity modelsBayesianinformative priorsnonresponse
spellingShingle Eliud Kibuchi
Gabriele B Durrant
Olga Maslovskaya
Patrick Sturgis
An Assessment of the Utility of a Bayesian Framework to Improve Response Propensity Models in Longitudinal Data
Survey Research Methods
response propensity models
Bayesian
informative priors
nonresponse
title An Assessment of the Utility of a Bayesian Framework to Improve Response Propensity Models in Longitudinal Data
title_full An Assessment of the Utility of a Bayesian Framework to Improve Response Propensity Models in Longitudinal Data
title_fullStr An Assessment of the Utility of a Bayesian Framework to Improve Response Propensity Models in Longitudinal Data
title_full_unstemmed An Assessment of the Utility of a Bayesian Framework to Improve Response Propensity Models in Longitudinal Data
title_short An Assessment of the Utility of a Bayesian Framework to Improve Response Propensity Models in Longitudinal Data
title_sort assessment of the utility of a bayesian framework to improve response propensity models in longitudinal data
topic response propensity models
Bayesian
informative priors
nonresponse
url https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/article/view/8188
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