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3 - Weighting

An Appreciation and Critique

from Part I - Polling in Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2024

Michael A. Bailey
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
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Summary

This chapter explains weighting in a manner that allows us to appreciate both the power and vulnerability of the technique and, by extension, other techniques that rely on similar assumptions. Once we understand how weighting works, we will better understand when it works. This chapter opens by discussing weighting in general terms. The subsequent sections get more granular. Sections 3.2 and 3.3 cover widely used weighting techniques: cell-weighting and raking. Section 3.4 covers variable selection, a topic that may well be more important than weighting technique. Section 3.5 covers the effect of weighting on precision, a topic that frequently gets lost in polling reporting. This chapter mixes intuitive and somewhat technical descriptions of weighting. The technical details in Sections 3.2 and3.3 can be skimmed by readers focused on the big picture how weighting works.

Type
Chapter
Information
Polling at a Crossroads
Rethinking Modern Survey Research
, pp. 47 - 76
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Weighting
  • Michael A. Bailey, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book: Polling at a Crossroads
  • Online publication: 29 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108697798.004
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  • Weighting
  • Michael A. Bailey, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book: Polling at a Crossroads
  • Online publication: 29 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108697798.004
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Weighting
  • Michael A. Bailey, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book: Polling at a Crossroads
  • Online publication: 29 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108697798.004
Available formats
×