Try, Try Again: Replication-Based Variance Estimation Methods for Survey Data Analysis in SAS 9.2

Overview

Complex survey samples are constructed with selection schemes that affect the usual random assumptions, so SAS/STAT software provides specialized procedures to analyze them: SURVEYMEANS, SURVEYFREQ, SURVEYREG, and SURVEYLOGISTIC for means, frequencies, regression, and logistic analysis, respectively. These procedures all use the Taylor series expansion method for variance estimation, which is usually considered to be the "Gold standard" when it is practical to compute. However, replication methods are also widely used in practice for variance estimation. Replication methods, such as the jackknife and Balanced Repeated Replication (BRR), replace complex algebra with simple repeated analysis. They enable the user to analyze the data without the original sample design, protecting survey security, and they ease the task of estimating variances for nonlinear quantities.