ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the indicators that are used most often and their statistical properties. The indicators typically depend on auxiliary information, and without specifying what auxiliary variables are included and how, the indicator values are meaningless. Most nonresponse indicators are indirect measures of nonresponse bias. However, nonresponse bias is a meaningless term until a population parameter and estimator are specified. The chapter introduces type 1 indicators, based on auxiliary variables only, and type 2 indicators, including also responses to survey variables. All indicators are estimated based on survey sample and response data and are subject to bias and imprecision. Both bias and imprecision are sample-size dependent and are typically inversely proportional to the sample size. Consequently, indicator values cannot be given without a specification of the precision. In practice, this means that conclusions about indicator values need to be tempered by an examination.
