Assessing Nonresponse in a Longitudinal Establishment Survey Using Regression Trees

This article introduces and discusses a method for conducting an analysis of nonresponse for a longitudinal establishment survey using regression trees. The methodology consists of three parts: analysis during the frame refinement and enrollment phases, common in longitudinal surveys; analysis of the effect of time on response rates during data collection; and analysis of the potential for nonresponse bias. For all three analyses, regression tree models are used to identify establishment characteristics and subgroups of establishments that represent vulnerabilities during the data collection process. This information could be used to direct additional resources to collecting data from identified establishments in order to improve the response rate.