1. Joint OECD / European Commission workshop on international development in business and consumer tendency surveys Nov 12-13 2007 Session 1: Analyses of the response characteristics of surveys conducted by national agencies Overview Richard McKenzie OECD

2. Joint OECD / European Commission workshop on international development in business and consumer tendency surveys Nov 12-13 2007 Background  Taskforce established at first meeting in 2003 on: ‘Improvement of response rates and minimisation of respondent load’  Two main themes of work: Relationship between response rates and data collection methods Assessing and minimising the impact of non-response on survey estimates

3. Joint OECD / European Commission workshop on international development in business and consumer tendency surveys Nov 12-13 2007 Focus of analytical work on weighting issues and assessment of non-response impacts INSEE – common sample estimation methodology Bureau of Economic Research in South Africa Analysis of non-response patterns and characteristics of regular and irregular respondents –Most comprehensive study of its kind in the literature of BTS surveys, to test many of the assumptions most institutes use concerning treatment of non-response

4. Joint OECD / European Commission workshop on international development in business and consumer tendency surveys Nov 12-13 2007 Ongoing research on non-response and weighting issues Impact of late respondents on Business Surveys in South Africa Analysis of response behaviour for the CBI Services Sector Survey (United Kingdom) New statistics of BTS Panel (Russian Federation) Evaluating Alternative Index Designs for the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey