The Impact of Non-Response Weighting: Empirical Evidence from Modelling Residential Mobility

Abstract: This paper examines whether non-response weighting affects estimates resulting from the analysis of the desire for residential mobility. The assumption here is that residential mobility itself can cause survey non-response. If that is the case, estimates related to residential mobility that are only constructed based on the set of responding units are likely to be biased. In turn, non-response weighting may reduce the potential bias, resulting in different estimates. Data are from the British Household Panel Survey. Analysis of the desire for residential mobility is conducted. Weighted and un-weighted estimates are produced and compared. The results suggest that implementing the weights in the analysis yields different estimates, which in turn indicates bias reduction.

Keywords: Survey non-response; Weighting; Bias; Precision; Residential mobility.