Household surveys — most notably the U.S. Census as well as the American Community Survey and the Current Population Survey — are important sources of information in the United States. They provide policymakers with data to help them make decisions essential to nearly every government program, including those involving housing, law enforcement, and public education. At the most basic level, the U.S. Constitution requires that a count is taken of every American resident once per decade — data that is used to draw federal, state and local legislative districts as well as school district boundaries. They often go far beyond that, however.
Large and nationally-representative surveys are a relatively fast and inexpensive way to collect this sort of data. However, in recent years, decreasing response rates and data errors — for instance, some respondents give inaccurate information about their personal finances — have challenged the usefulness of some surveys and resulted in lower quality data. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, “Household Surveys in Crisis,” examines these problems. Bruce D. Meyer of the University of Chicago, Wallace K. C. Mok of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and James X. Sullivan of the University of Notre Dame, worked together to better understand these problems and why they occur.
The study’s findings include:
U.S. households are increasingly less likely to answer surveys. The non-response rate of the National Health Interview Survey, for example, rose from 8 percent in 1997 to 24 percent in 2013.
More people are leaving some survey questions unanswered, especially questions about income. For most of the years since 2000, more than 20 percent of the people who have taken the federal government’s Current Population Survey or the Survey of Income and Program Participation did not answer whether they receive financial assistance through assistance programs known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
Survey respondents are under-reporting the amount of financial assistance they receive through government programs. The authors’ state: “In recent years, more than half of welfare dollars and nearly half of food stamp dollars have been missed in several major surveys”
Some of the biggest reasons why people are less likely to answer surveys are disinterest, a lack of time and privacy concerns. Poor health and language problems also have prevented individuals from participating.
The increase in gated communities and the decline in land-line phones have made door-to-door and phone surveys more difficult.
Given the issues of problematic sampling and surveying discussed in this section of the text, complete the following:
Analyze the potential problems that might result from this study’s findings, in terms of the results of these population surveys.
Define what kinds of problems these are, given the terminology of this section.
Suggest potential solutions for how these challenges might be overcome.
