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An application of SAS ® Simulation Studio: The Microsimulation of a Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing System

In order to carry on large-scale telephone surveys, statistical agencies commonly use Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). For example, Blaise is the CATI system used at Statistics Canada. One of the features of Blaise is a call scheduler that regulates how interviews are scheduled and conducted, depending on a variety of parameters. It is not easy to find optimal values for these parameters, as field tests in real time are typically costly and take time to conduct and analyze. It is important, however, to try to find strategies that decrease the costs of interviewing, given that data collection usually accounts for the largest part of a survey’s overall budget. In this paper we show how microsimulation can be used to help find strategies to improve the efficiency of data collection. More specifically, we describe the characteristics of a prototype of a microsimulation system for CATI surveys built using SAS Simulation Studio.