Nonresponse Bias in Mail Surveys: The Case of the Department of Defense Post-Service Survey.

R. Gary Bridge

ResearchPublished 1974

The bias caused by nonresponse to mailed questionnaires is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to remove. This paper examines several approaches to identifying and correcting survey data thus biased; it concludes that neither the direction nor the magnitude of the bias can be known with confidence unless either (1) the investigator already has considerable information about the sample population; or (2) it is possible to track down and interview an adequate sample of those who did not respond. Of these two conditions, the first is rare and the second, expensive. The paper uses questionnaire data collected from former servicemen (of whom a great deal of information was already available from service records) to demonstrate the alternative procedures for identifying and removing nonresponse bias purely by statistical methods. 35 pp. Bibliog.

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Bridge, R. Gary, Nonresponse Bias in Mail Surveys: The Case of the Department of Defense Post-Service Survey. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1974. https://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R1501.html.
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