APPENDIX B. SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION Note on 2020 data collection and results
The pandemic impacted data collection efforts across the country. The Poverty Tracker survey team, based at Columbia University, moved quickly to adapt, transitioning operations to both accommodate remote work and maintain data security. The U.S. Census Bureau also adjusted their operations for the administration of the American Community Survey (ACS). After the decennial census, the ACS is the largest survey run by the Census Bureau, and it is the main source of annual data on the composition of the U.S. population, as well as of smaller area geographies like New York City. For this reason, the Poverty Tracker uses the ACS data to adjust our sample through a technique called “weighting,” which helps ensure our sample is representative of the city’s population. In 2020, household non-response increased substantially in the ACS, with more disadvan- taged households becoming relatively less likely to respond during the pandemic. 33 This non-response bias was linked to challenges with survey administration during the pandemic, and to correct for it, the Census Bu- reau developed an experimental method to adjust the data and make it representative of the U.S. population. The Census Bureau has cautioned against using the 2020 ACS in similar fashions to its uses in prior years, and has noted that the data are not comparable to earlier years of data. For this reason, we caution readers that the results we present specific to 2020 must be evaluated in this context. As such, the margin of error around 2020 estimates is larger than that around results presented in previous Poverty Tracker reports. Note on experiences of Asian New Yorkers Understanding the experiences of Asian New Yorkers is essential to developing a comprehensive view of poverty and disadvantage in New York City. However, this group is often underrepresented in other data resources on the city’s population, and has historically been underrepresented in the Poverty Tracker data as well. 34 In 2020, the Poverty Tracker made an effort to change this by starting to oversample in neighbor- hoods with a high concentration of New Yorkers of Chinese origin via Random Digit Dial (RDD) sampling, which was later augmented with a small non-probability sample recruited through social media-based sources (i.e., WeChat community groups). 35 This change in sampling methodology is signified throughout this report by a break in time-series data visualizations. In 2020, we also began to interview respondents in Mandarin to increase data representativeness of the Asian population and the research capacity to conduct comparative analyses with other racial and ethnic groups. 36 Prior to 2020, the Poverty Tracker sample contained only Asian New Yorkers who were able to complete sur- veys in English or Spanish. We recognize that the Asian community is diverse and multilingual – however, Mandarin is the most common Asian language spoken in the city, and Mandarin-speaking New Yorkers form the largest group within the city’s Asian community. The inclusion of the Chinese-origin oversample thus rep- resents a major improvement in the Poverty Tracker’s ability to evaluate the experiences of poverty, material hardship, and health problems among Asian New Yorkers (and, in particular, the city’s Chinese community).
33 Rothbaum and Bee, “Coronavirus Infects Surveys, Too: Survey Nonresponse Bias and the Coronavirus Pandemic.” 34 See: Song, “Researching Asian Poverty in New York.
35 The sampling design with a small non-probability sample has established precedence in the Poverty Tracker, with previous cohorts (2012 and 2015) including a convenience sample of New Yorkers who visited Robin Hood funded social service agencies. including a convenience sample of New Yorkers who visited Robin Hood funded social service agencies. 36 As for phone interviews, respondents of Chinese origin have the option to take the surveys in either Mandarin or English. As for online surveys, respondents of Chinese origin have the option to take the surveys in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, or English.
46 THE STATE OF POVERTY AND DISADVANTAGE IN NEW YORK CITY VOL. 6
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