Practical Tools for Designing and Weighting Survey Samples The goal of this book is to put an array of tools at the fingertips of students practitioners and researchers by explaining approaches long used by survey statisticians illustrating how existing software can be used to solve survey problems and developing some specialized software where needed. This volume serves at least three audiences: (1) students of applied sampling techniques; 2) practicing survey statisticians applying concepts learned in theoretical or applied sampling courses; and (3) social scientists and other survey practitioners who design select and weight survey samples. The text thoroughly covers fundamental aspects of survey sampling such as sample size calculation (with examples for both single and multi stage sample design) and weight computation accompanied by software examples to facilitate implementation. Features include step by step instructions for calculating survey weights extensive real world examples and applications and representative programming code in R SAS and other packages. Since the publication of the first edition in 2013 there have been important developments in making inferences from nonprobability samples in address based sampling (ABS) and in the application of machine learning techniques for survey estimation. New to this revised and expanded edition: • Details on new functions in the PracTools package • Additional machine learning methods to form weighting classes • New coverage of nonlinear optimization algorithms for sample allocation • Reflecting effects of multiple weighting steps (nonresponse and calibration) on standard errors • A new chapter on nonprobability sampling • Additional examples exercises and updated references throughout Richard Valliant PhD is Research Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan and at the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association an elected member of the International Statistical Institute and has been an Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association Journal of Official Statistics and Survey Methodology. Jill A. Dever PhD is Senior Research Statistician at RTI International in Washington DC. She is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association Associate Editor for Survey Methodology and the Journal of Official Statistics and an Assistant Research Professor in the Joint Program in Survey ... Preface Acknowledgements 1 An Overview of Sample Design and Weighting 2 Project 1: Design a Single Stage Personnel Survey 3 Sample Design and Sample Size for Single Stage Surveys 4 Power Calculations and Sample Size Determination 5 Mathematical Programming 6 Outcome Rates and Effect on Sample Size 7 The Personnel Survey Design Project: One Solution 8 Project 2: Designing an Area Sample 9 Designing Multistage Samples 10 Area Sampling 11 The Area Sample Design: One Solution 12 Project 3: Weighting a Personnel Survey 13 Basic Steps in Weighting 14 Calibration and Other Uses of Auxiliary Data in Weighting 15 Variance Estimation 16 Weighting the Personnel Survey: One Solution 17 Multiphase Designs 18 Nonprobability Samples 19 Process Control and Quality Measures Appendix A: Notation Glossary Appendix B: Data Sets Appendix C: R Functions Used in this Book References Solutions to Selected Exercises Index