Overview of the Special Issue from the Fifth International Conference on Establishment Surveys (ICES-V)

Establishment Surveys. What Are They and Why Dedicate an Entire Conference Series to Them? The Encyclopedia of Survey Research Methods provides the following definition: “An establishment survey is a survey that seeks to measure the behavior, structure, or output of organizations rather than individuals. Establishment surveys include surveys of business that are critical to our understanding of trends in the economy.” Establishment surveys provide economic measures that change economies. They are inputs to National Accounts, to Price Indices, and to Gross Domestic Products. Economic indicators move markets. Interest rate hikes and decreases follow the release of economic statistics. Definitions change as economies mature or become global. Data users include policymakers, business communities, and economists. The demand for timely, relevant, and accurate economic measures continues to increase, even as establishment surveys are plagued by the same decreasing response rates and budget challenges as their household counterparts. The formal definition of an establishment survey, while accurate, is not entirely enlightening. Household surveys are more intuitive: the survey unit is a person or group of persons, the intent is to measure some form of human characteristics, behavior, and/or opinions (e.g., employment, victimization experience, political preferences, expenditures, etc.), and the questionnaire recipient is often best equipped to answer the questions. A large portion of the survey sampling and survey methodology literature focuses on household surveys.