Appendix E

Average Timing Report

To: John Wolken

From: NORC

CC: Traci Mach

Date: March 11, 2005

2003 SSBF Final Timing Report

The tables on the following page give, in minutes, the mean, median, standard deviation, minimum, and maximum of the times to complete each subsection¹ of the 2003 SSBF screener and main interview. For the main interview, these statistics are also reported for the time to complete the interview as a whole.

The summary is based on the screener variable CALC1 and on the main interview variables TCALC1 through TCALC14. These variables contain, in seconds, the times to complete the corresponding sections of the interviews.

Many recorded section times are invalidated because of a break-off during the interview. Missing times and times less than or equal to ten seconds are considered invalid, and it was decided that any section time that is greater than two standard deviations above the mean of the non-missing, greater-than-ten-second section times should be treated as invalid as well.

The statistics for the screener and each main interview subsection are based only on cases that have valid section times, as defined above, for the particular section. The statistics for the main interview as a whole are based only on cases that had valid section times for all fourteen main interview sections.

For the main interview, we began with the 4583 completed cases. For each subsection, invalid cases were then removed and the statistics were calculated using the remaining cases. For the screener, we began with the 13861 cases that had a non-missing section time. The invalid cases were removed and the statistics were calculated using the remaining cases.

A copy of this memo and tables will appear in the Appendix of the methodology report.

**2003 SURVEY OF SMALL BUSINESS FINANCES**

**Timing Report for Administration of Screener Interview**
Variable	N with non-missing section time	N below the lower cutoff¹	N above the upper cutoff¹	N with valid screener timing¹	Mean (minutes)	Median (minutes)	Std Dev (minutes)	Maximum (minutes)	Minimum (minutes)
CALC1	13861	12	652	13197	13.23	11.22	8.05	36.97	0.87

1Due to the possibility of a break-off and resumption of a screener interview, which would render the interview time meaningless, times below an arbitrary lower cutoff or above an arbitrary upper cutoff were considered invalid. The lower cutoff for a section time is 11 seconds. The upper cutoff is two standard deviations above the mean of the times above the lower cutoff. The mean, median, standard deviation, maximum and minimum shown here are based on valid section times only. Return to Table

Timing Report for Administration of Main Interview
Subsection	Variable	N completed cases	N below the lower cutoff¹	N above the upper cutoff¹	N with valid section times¹	Mean (minutes)	Median (minutes)	Std Dev (minutes)	Maximum (minutes)	Minimum (minutes)
A	TCALC1	4583	23	233	4327	13.18	10.42	9.23	41.90	0.57
B and C	TCALC2	4583	140	118	4325	3.56	2.95	1.90	10.97	0.18
D	TCALC3	4583	191	31	4361	1.82	1.73	0.75	6.20	0.18
E	TCALC4	4583	164	152	4267	3.74	2.88	2.67	17.95	0.18
F	TCALC5	4583	1731	119	2733	6.98	6.02	3.95	26.00	0.18
MRL and MRD	TCALC6	4583	124	231	4228	12.76	5.65	14.22	53.20	0.18
G	TCALC7	4583	34	103	4446	2.98	2.69	1.38	9.23	0.20
H	TCALC8	4583	107	136	4340	7.03	6.13	4.08	20.40	0.18
L	TCALC9	4583	17	133	4433	2.12	2.10	1.37	6.75	0.18
M	TCALC10	4583	161	80	4342	0.31	0.23	0.26	1.98	0.18
P	TCALC11	4583	6	195	4382	5.56	4.62	3.04	18.88	0.28
R	TCALC12	4583	4	118	4461	3.69	3.30	1.58	10.53	0.83
S	TCALC13	4583	5	107	4471	1.86	1.57	0.92	5.95	0.45
U and T	TCALC14	4583	1	168	4414	4.57	4.20	1.53	10.45	1.12
Entire Interview²		4583	2097	668	1817	59.11	57.55	17.72	142.03	19.95

¹Due to the possibility of a break-off and resumption of an interview, which would render a section time meaningless, section times below an arbitrary lower cutoff or above an arbitrary upper cutoff were considered invalid. The lower cutoff for a section time is 11 seconds. The upper cutoff is two standard deviations above the mean of the times above the lower cutoff. The mean, median, standard deviation, maximum and minimum shown here are based on valid section times only. Return to Table

²The timing statistics for the entire interview are based on cases that had a valid time for each of the fourteen sections. Return to Table

Prepared by NORC, Chicago, IL; March 2005.

Footnotes

1. The CATI combined times for subsections B and C, MRL and MRD, and U and T. Return to Text

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