Memo

The Census Bureau plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). We will be conducting cognitive interviews to test new and revised content in the Economic Census for Island Areas, specifically the questionnaire for Puerto Rico. A new question will be requesting information from real estate companies about leased shopping centers and the square footage related to them. The Legal Form of Organization question for manufacturing companies is being revised to include an inquiry about whether the establishment is a controlled foreign corporation. The goals of this research are to see if respondents can understand and answer these questions correctly and what, if any, changes are necessary to the proposed wording. Additional information about the Economic Census of Island Areas can be found here - https://www.census.gov/econ/islandareas/.

From September through October 2016, we plan to conduct up to 20 cognitive interviews with respondents from companies that participated in the 2012 Economic Census for Island Areas. Because the questions are industry-specific and will not be asked of all respondents during the Census, each interview will test only one draft question. We plan to conduct interviews with up to eight real estate companies and up to 12 manufacturing companies.

All interviews will be conducted by telephone by researchers from the Data Collection and Methodology Research Branch or subject matter experts from the Economic Census of Island Areas. Staff from the Economic Census for Island Areas will provide lists of real estate and manufacturing companies that responded to the 2012 Economic Census for Puerto Rico. We want to talk with participants who filled out the 2012 Economic Census and/or will be most likely to fill out the 2017 Economic Census. We will attempt to conduct the interviews during the initial call, but if respondents need to schedule the interview for a later time, we will send them a follow-up reminder by telephone, email, or fax.

Interviews may be audio-recorded, with the participants' permission, to facilitate accurate summarization of the results. We will also inform participants that their response is voluntary, the information they provide is confidential, and that only employees involved in the research project may see their information. We will not be providing monetary incentives to participants in this study.

Interviews are expected to last up to 15 minutes. We expect to make up to five recruiting calls for every interview scheduled, and each recruiting call will last an average of five minutes. Thus, the total estimated additional burden for this set of interviews is approximately 14 hours ((20 companies X 15 minutes) + (100 companies X 5 minutes) = 5 hours + 8.3 hours).

The interview protocol and draft questions are enclosed.

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and statistical aspects of the design of this research is listed below:

Amy Anderson Riemer

Data Collection and Methodology Research Branch

Economic and Statistical Methods Division

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-7544

[email protected]

Enclosures

cc:
William Bostic          (ADEP) with enclosures

Cynthia Hollingsworth (EWD) “ “

Kevin Deardorff (EWD) “ “

Aneta Erdie (EWD) “ “

Suzanne Conard (EWD) “ “

Patrice Norman (EWD)” “

Geoffrey Hill (EWD)” “

Shelby Plude (EWD)” “

William Davie (ESMD) “ “

Carol Caldwell (ESMD) “           ”

Carma Hogue (ESMD) “ “

Diane Willimack (ESMD) “ “