1 

Data-Driven Decision Making and the Design of Economic Census 

Data Collection Instruments

Eric B. Fink, Jennifer L. Beck, and Diane K. Willimack 

U.S. Census Bureau1, Washington, D.C. 20233

Proceedings of the 2015 Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology (FCSM) Research Conference

Abstract

As it is becoming increasingly common for surveys at the U.S. Census Bureau to shift to a single-mode electronic 

instrument, survey managers will have to think about both the opportunities and the risks associated with such a 

transition. At the extreme, the adoption of an electronic instrument allows a “form” to be uniquely customized to a 

respondent. This has the desired outcome of potentially reducing respondent burden to a substantial degree. In this 

paper, we explore this idea of a customized form by looking at how products may be pre-listed in the upcoming 

2017 Economic Census.

Keywords: Instrument design and pretesting, multi-mode and web data collection, Economic Census, NAPCS

Introduction

The economic census, which the U.S. Census Bureau conducts every five years, is undergoing a major reengineering effort. For the 2012 Economic Census, establishment-level data were collected using two-selfadministered modes: mail-out/mail-back and electronic. For the 2017 Economic Census, only electronic reporting 

will be available. This presents unique challenges and opportunities for designing electronic instruments. For 

example, in past censuses, paper questionnaires contained long, detailed lists of products that filled multiple pages; 

respondents had to search for goods and services in this list and enter revenue data. A Web instrument offers 

automated features that may reduce the burden of sifting through long product lists, and improve data quality. 

This paper focuses on the planned electronic collection of detailed product lines for implementing the North 

American Product Classification System (NAPCS), a comprehensive demand-oriented classification system that is 

being developed by the statistical agencies of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. As part of this effort, we 

analyzed product information that businesses reported in the 2012 Economic Census to discern reporting patterns 

associated with industries in the economic census. These reporting patterns may be leveraged in 2017 instrument 

design, providing a familiar starting point for respondents to begin supplying product-level receipts. We use the 

results from this analysis, in conjunction with usability testing, to aid development of an effective design for 

obtaining product-level detail. 

We demonstrate how analyzing respondent reported data, paired with instrument design testing, may be used to 

inform instrument-design decisions for business surveys. As many Federal surveys increasingly rely on electronicbased data collection, electronic instruments can provide many benefits over traditional paper forms. The electronic 

instrument need not have the look and feel of its paper-based counterpart to be effective, but can be uniquely 

customizable to the respondent to improve the survey experience, thus reducing respondent burden and increasing 

data quality. 

The paper will be organized as follows. First, background on both the economic census and NAPCS will be given, 

and then a discussion of the methods will follow. Finally results will be presented and discussed with ideas on next 

steps.

 

1 Any views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the U.S. Census Bureau.