NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS Working Paper Series The Working Paper Series was created in order to preserve the information contained in these documents and to promote the sharing of valuable work experience and knowledge. However, these documents were prepared under different formats and did not undergo vigorous NCES publication review and editing prior to their inclusion in the series. U. S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS Working Paper Series Variance Estimation of Imputed Survey Data Working Paper No. 98-14 October 1998 Contact: Steven Kaufman Surveys and Cooperative Systems Group email: [email protected] U. S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement U.S. Department of Education Richard W. Riley Secretary Office of Educational Research and Improvement C. Kent McGuire Assistant Secretary National Center for Education Statistics Pascal D. Forgione, Jr. Commissioner The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data related to education in the United States and other nations. It fulfills a congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report full and complete statistics on the condition of education in the United States; conduct and publish reports and specialized analyses of the meaning and significance of such statistics; assist state and local education agencies in improving their statistical systems; and review and report on education activities in foreign countries. NCES activities are designed to address high priority education data needs; provide consistent, reliable, complete, and accurate indicators of education status and trends; and report timely, useful, and high quality data to the U.S. Department of Education, the Congress, the states, other education policymakers, practitioners, data users, and the general public. We strive to make our products available in a variety of formats and in language that is appropriate to a variety of audiences. You, as our customer, are the best judge of our success in communicating information effectively. If you have any comments or suggestions about this or any other NCES product or report, we would like to hear from you. Please direct your comments to: National Center for Education Statistics Office of Educational Research and Improvement U.S. Department of Education 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20208 The NCES World Wide Web Home Page is http://nces.ed.gov Suggested Citation U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. Variance Estimation of Imputed Survey Data. Working Paper No. 98-14, by Fan Zhang, Mike Brick, Steven Kaufman, and Elizabeth Walter. Project Officer, Steven Kaufman. Washington, D.C.: 1998. October 1998 Foreword Each year a large number of written documents are generated by NCES staff and individuals commissioned by NCES which provide preliminary analyses of survey results and address technical, methodological, and evaluation issues. Even though they are not formally published, these documents reflect a tremendous amount of unique expertise, knowledge, and experience. The Working Paper Series was created in order to preserve the information contained in these documents and to promote the sharing of valuable work experience and knowledge. However, these documents were prepared under different formats and did not undergo vigorous NCES publication review and editing prior to their inclusion in the series. Consequently, we encourage users of the series to consult the individual authors for citations. To receive information about submitting manuscripts or obtaining copies of the series, please contact Ruth R. Harris at (202) 219-1831 (e-mail: [email protected]) or U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics, 555 New Jersey Ave., N.W., Room 400, Washington, D.C. 20208-5654. Marilyn McMillen Samuel S. Peng Chief Statistician Director Statistical Standards and Services Group Methodology, Training, and Customer Service Program iii Variance Estimation of Imputed Survey Data Prepared by: Fan Zhang Synectics for Management Decisions, Inc. Mike Brick Westat, Inc. Steven Kaufman National Center for Education Statistics Elizabeth Walter Synectics for Management Decisions, Inc. Prepared for: U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Development National Center for Education Statistics October 1998 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 2. Literature Review ................................................................................................................ 2 2.1. S@rndal’s Model-Assisted Method ......................................................................... 2 2.2. Kaufman’s Method.................................................................................................. 4 2.3. Shao and Sitter’s Method ........................................................................................ 7 3. An Empirical Study............................................................................................................. 7 4. Summary and Suggestion.................................................................................................. 12 Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 17 References ..................................................................................................................................... 20 List of Tables 1. Variables used in this study............................................................................................... 13 2. Standard error comparison for total estimates of continuous variables ............................ 13 3. Standard error comparison for average estimates of continuous variables ....................... 13 4. Standard error comparison for total estimates of discrete variables.................................. 14 5. Standard error comparison for percentage estimates of discrete variables........................ 15 6. Standard error comparison for ratio estimates of continuous variables ............................ 16 7. Public School Teacher (SASS-4A) matching variables .................................................... 16 8. Public School Teacher (SASS-4A) order of collapse........................................................ 16 v 1. Introduction Missing data is a common problem in virtually all surveys. In cross-sectional surveys, missing data may mean no responses are obtained for a whole unit being surveyed (unit nonresponse), or that responses are obtained for some of the items for a unit but not for other items (item nonresponse). In panel or longitudinal surveys, the data may be missing in more complex patterns. For example, a unit may respond to one wave of a survey but not respond to other waves (wave nonresponse). Unit and item nonresponse cause a variety of problems for survey analysts. Missing data can contribute to bias in the estimates and make the analyses harder to conduct and results harder to present. The most commonly used method for compensating for unit nonresponse in National Center for Education Statistics surveys is to adjust the weights of the respondents so that survey analysts can use the observed data to make inferences for the entire target population. The most frequently used method to compensate for item nonresponse in NCES surveys is imputation. Imputation consists of replacing the missing data item with a value that is either taken directly from a value reported by another respondent in the same survey or derived indirectly using a model that relates nonrespondents to respondents. In practice, imputed values are often treated as if they were true values. This procedure is appropriate for developing estimates of totals, means, proportions, and most other estimates of first-order population quantities like quantiles, if the imputation does not cause serious systematic bias. However, to estimate the variance of these estimators when there is imputed data, it is no longer appropriate to use the standard formulae. As early as the 1950s, Hansen, Hurwitz, and Madow (1953) recognized that treating imputed values as observed values can lead to underestimating variances of these estimators if standard formulae are used. This underestimation may become more appreciable as the proportion of imputed items increases. Analysts have developed a number of procedures to handle variance estimation of imputed survey data. In particular, Rubin (1987) proposed a multiple imputation procedure to estimate the variance due to imputation by replicating the process a number of times and estimating the between replicate variation. This multiple imputation procedure, however, may not lead to consistent variance estimators for stratified multistage surveys in the common situation of imputation cutting across sample clusters (Fay, 1991). Moreover, multiple imputation requires maintaining multiple complete data sets, which is operationally difficult, especially in large-scale surveys. More recently, Särndal (1992) outlined a number of model-assisted estimators of variance, while Rao and Shao (1992) proposed a technique that adjusts the imputed values to correct the usual or naive jackknife variance estimator