1. Pre-printing experiences at Statistics Sweden Anders Holmberg Department of Research & Development Statistics Sweden SE-701 89 Örebro Sweden Tel: +46 19 176905 Fax: +46 19 177084 E-mail: Anders.Holmberg@scb.se Anders HolmbergSeminar/University of Essex 2004-09

2. The pre-printing ‘culture’ at Statistics Sweden; motives for and against and some examples. Results from two experimental studies Conclusions from a review at Statistics Sweden Some study areas for the future Outline Anders HolmbergSeminar/University of Essex 2004-09

3. Historical data can be used in surveys where respondents are contacted repeatedly, (or if data of the same object e.g. a business that is collected repeatedly.) Updating and/or verifying purposes: (Normally updating) Dependent interviewing, Pre-printing self administered questionnaires. Pre-printing at Statistics Sweden Anders HolmbergSeminar/University of Essex 2004-09

4. Respondent support e.g. Less response burden, Questionnaire guidance, memory support, anchoring, feed-back. Reduction of measurement errors and improved data quality Improved efficiency in the data collection process Possible advantages Anders HolmbergSeminar/University of Essex 2004-09

5. Risk of bias due to underreporting of changes. Loss in confidence and goodwill Disclosure risks Possible disadvantages Anders HolmbergSeminar/University of Essex 2004-09

6. The LHU-survey 2000: Annual survey of building rental units with premises used for commercial purposes. Rented area and total monthly rental income for shops, industries and offices. Due to the sampling design, the number of common building units in two successive samples is large. FASTIGO’S yearly collection of wages Individually designed Excel questionnaires to member companies (2000) Contracts, working hours, occupation codes Pre-printing experiments Anders HolmbergSeminar/University of Essex 2004-09

7. Randomized block design with three treatments 1. No pre-print 2. One reference month pre-printed 3. Two reference months pre-printed LHU experiment Anders HolmbergSeminar/University of Essex 2004-09 Response variability Occurrence and size of outliers Pre-printing recurrences (same value repetitions) Effects on estimates of yearly rates of change

8. Experiment plan (LHU) Anders HolmbergQDET Charleston 2002-11-17

9. Pre-printing clearly reduces spurious/unwanted response variability Less and smaller outlier values with pre- printing, indicates higher data quality and less measurement errors ‘Same-value-repetitions’ Pre-printing recurrences were more common Without pre-printing. In this survey, pre-printing will improve the quality of the estimates of change over time. Results LHU Anders HolmbergSeminar/University of Essex 2004-09

10. Treatment Type of Premises 123 ShopsMinimum -87%-29%-22% Maximum 497%77%292% Proportion of units with a deviating value > 25%. 14.3%4.2%2.0% Anders HolmbergSeminar/University of Essex 2004-09 Table 1: Ratio of repeated measures for December 99. Max. and Min. values and proportion of units with a deviating value larger than 25%

11. Table 2: Number units with office premises reporting different values of rental income in December-00 compared to December-99, by treatment and direction of change. (%) Direction of change Treatment Total number of units 1 2 3 Decrease lower value reported for Dec-00 192916 198 Unchanged Same value reported 301823 132 Increase higher value reported for Dec-00 515461 368 Total 100 635 Anders HolmbergSeminar/University of Essex 2004-09

12. They wanted to stop pre-printing the variable Hours worked (in % of full time), since they thought changes in the variable was not updated frequently enough. They deliver data to Stat Sweden for some of their companies. Time of response, as well as a dichotomous outcome variable (at least one change (update) in hours worked since last year/no changes) were studied. Pre-printing and not pre-printing treatments were randomized within size groups and whether companies delivered data to Stat Sweden or not. FASTIGO’s wages Anders HolmbergSeminar/University of Essex 2004-09

13. No differences were observed in response time. Somewhat surprising to the FASTIGO staff, the updating / change frequency were higher for the pre-printing treatment! (Significantly higher in the group of Stat. Sweden companies). FASTIGO’s wages Anders HolmbergSeminar/University of Essex 2004-09

14. Proportion of companies with at least one update by treatment and group. FASTIGO’s wages Anders HolmbergSeminar/University of Essex 2004-09

15. Both the response burden and data quality arguments can be strong in favor of pre-printing. Studies indicate that spurious response variability is significantly reduced with pre- printing. In our review no cases were found were the possible negative properties of pre-printing had significant effects on macro-level statistics. With careful (re-)design of questionnaires and proper testing of its effects on data quality, pre- printing historical data should be seriously considered. Summary of the studies Anders HolmbergSeminar/University of Essex 2004-09

16. Data of the collection process automatically captured/monitored in electronic questionnaires (online/offline) Layout issues Multidisciplinary methodological efforts especially concerning effects of pre-printing on the rate of change of categorical variables. Future fields and some ongoing activities Anders HolmbergSeminar/University of Essex 2004-09