Assessing Nonresponse Bias in the International Price Program's Import and Export Price Index Surveys

Abstract The IPP’s Import and Export Price Index Surveys provide estimates of the change in prices of goods and services purchased by U.S. residents from foreign merchants or sold to foreign buyers by U.S. residents. In order to meet new Office of Management and Budget (OMB) standards and guidelines for statistical surveys, research was conducted using a three-phase approach to assess the effect of nonresponse bias in the IPP price indexes. The first phase modeled response rates using logistic regression. The second phase used a generalized linear mixed model with a random intercept term to investigate item price trends with varied response rates and company and item characteristics. Finally, using an equation provided by OMB to estimate nonresponse bias, we determined whether the level of nonresponse error in the price indexes was significant.