Nonparametric Multiple Imputation for Questionnaires with Individual Skip Patterns and Constraints: The Case of Income Imputation in the National Educational Panel Study

Abstract

Large-scale surveys typically exhibit data structures characterized by rich mutual dependencies between surveyed variables and individual-specific skip patterns. Despite high efforts in fieldwork and questionnaire design, missing values inevitably occur. One approach for handling missing values is to provide multiply imputed data sets, thus enhancing the analytical potential of the surveyed data. To preserve possible nonlinear relationships among variables and incorporate skip patterns that make the full conditional distributions individual specific, we adapt a full conditional multiple imputation approach based on sequential classification and regression trees. Individual-specific skip patterns and constraints are handled within imputation in a way ensuring the consistency of the sequence of full conditional distributions. The suggested approach is illustrated in the context of income imputation in the adult cohort of the National Educational Panel Study.