Example 10.2 You would likely use a quota sample (the main non-probability sample considered in ST104a Statistics 1) in the following situations: m= When speed is important. Clearly, an interviewer with a target to reach a certain number (quota) of people on a given day is likely to be quicker than one which requires a specific person or household to be contacted (as determined by a random sample). Typical quota controls for the interviewer to meet are: © age © gender '* socio-economic group, or social class. Note the more controls the interviewer is given, the longer it will take to complete the required number of interviews (and hence it will take longer to complete your study). = No available sampling frame covering the target population. If you think obtaining a list is likely to be very complicated, then a sensible targeting of the population by taking a quota sample might be helpful. You might, for example, wish to contact drivers of coaches and buses over a set of routes. There are a lot of bus companies involved, and some of them will not let you have their list of employees for data protection reasons, say. One of the things you could do in these circumstances is to carry out a quota sample at different ti of the day. ‘There are often random alternatives though, using lists you may not have thought of. In tho case above, you might be able to make a list of scheduled joumeys on the routes you wish to study and take a random sample of routes, interviewing the relevant driver as he or she completes their journey. m= When you need to reduce cost. Clearly, time-saving is an important clement in cost-saving. = When accuracy is not important. You may not need to have an answer to your question to the high ~ and known — level of accuracy that is possible using a random sample; rather you merely require an idea about a subject. Perhaps you only need to know if people, on the whole, like your new flavour of ice cream in order to judge whether or not there is likely to be sufficient consumer demand to justify full-scale production and distribution. In this case, asking a representative group of people (quota) would be perfectly adequate for your needs. Although there may be several reasons to justify the use of a quota sample, you should be aware of the problem caused by the omission of non-respondents. Because you only count the individuals who reply (unlike random sampling where your estimate hasto allow for bias through non-response), the omission of non-respondents* can lead to. serious errors as your results would he misleading. For this reason, members of the British Market Research Association have now agreed to list non-response as it occurs in their quota samples, and this is regarded as good practice. One possible remedy to this problem is to introduce more dotailed quota controls. For example, we might ask for age, gender, employment status, marital status and for the particular age of the respondent's children. However, this can take away a lot of the cost: advantages of using a quota, rather than a random sample. Imagine the time you would take locating the last woman for your sample aged 35d, married with teonage children and a full-time job! There is the additional expense of paying interviewers more for a smaller number of interviews (on the basis of the time they spend on the job). IF this is not done, the temptation to cheat, and therefore make results completely invalid, will be strong. Example 10.3 You have been asked to make a sample survey of each of the following. Would you use random or quota sampling? Explain. i. Airline pilots, for their company, about their use of holiday entitlement in order to bring in a new work scheme. In this case as the survey is for the company (and there is therefore no confidentiality issue) it is quite easy to use the company’s list of personnel. A quota sample would not be very easy in these circumstances — you would have to send your interviewers to a venue where most pilots would be likely to meet, or you would risk a very unrepresentative sample. So, in this case, a random sample would be easy and efficient to use. You would be able to collect accurate information and use your statistical techniques on it. ‘The subject matter, too, means that it is likely the pilots would take the survey more seriously if they were contacted through the company’s list. fi, Possible tourists, about their holiday destinations and the likely length of time and money they expect to spend on holiday in the next year, for a holiday company planning its holiday schedule and brochure for next year. ‘The situation for the tourist survey is different from that for airline pilots. ‘There will be not just one, but several lists of tourists from different holiday companies, and data confidentiality might well mean you could not buy lists which do not belong to your company. You might use the register of voters or list of households, but then you would not necessarily target those thinking about holidays in the near future. So a random sample sounds like an expensive option if this is to be a general study for a tourist company assessing its future offers and illustrations for its holiday brochure. Here, a quota sample makes more sense: interviewers can quickly find the right respondent for the company’s needs and get a general picture of holidaymakers’ preferences. iii, Houschold expenditure for government assessment of the effect of different types of taxes. ‘The government survey will require accuracy of information in an important policy area, A random sample will have to be used and the national lists of addresses or voters used.