Living Standards Survey, Wave 3, 2010-2011 - Nepal

Abstract
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The main objective of the NLSS-III is to update data on the living standards of the people. The survey aims to assess the impact of various government policies and programs on the socioeconomic changes in the country during the last 7 years. Further, the survey aims to track changes experienced by previously enumerated households during the past fifteen and seven years. The Nepal Living Standards Survey, 1995-1996 (LSS-I) was a milestone in the collection of data for the objective measurement of the living standards of the people and for determining the level of poverty in the country. The survey covered a wide range of topics related to “household welfare” (demography, consumption, income, access to facilities, housing, education, health, employment, credit, remittances and anthropometry, etc.). LSS-I for the first time, provided a measure of “extent and dimension” of poverty in Nepal. The survey findings became popular among decision makers in the government agencies, the general public and the international agencies as well. It was realized that a second round of the survey was needed to update the results and to assess the impact of policies and programs on poverty and social indicators over the years (since the NLSS-I was conducted). Accordingly, the second round of the survey (LSS-II) was carried out in 2003/04 after 8 years of the first survey.

The findings of the LSS-II helped the government to monitor progress in improving national living standards and the survey became a good basis for monitoring the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) over time. Realizing the importance of time series data, the Government of Nepal decided to conduct another round of the Nepal Living Standards Survey. Accordingly, the Central Bureau of Statistics for the third time conducted the survey in 2010/11 (LSS-III). The survey was carried out with the assistance from the World Bank.

Geographic coverage
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National

Analysis unit
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Households

Universe
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All households in the country were considered eligible for selection in the survey. The survey, however, excluded the households of diplomatic missions. The institutional households (like people living in schools' hostels, prisons, army camps and hospitals) were also excluded from the survey. The household members were determined on the basis of the usual place of their residence. Foreign nationals whose usual place of residence is within the country were included in the survey.

Kind of data
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Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure
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(a) SAMPLING FRAME

The initial frame for the LSS-III survey was based on the frame prepared for the 2008 Nepal Labour Force Survey (NLFS-II). This was done "to take advantage of the cartographic segmentation and household listing operations" conducted by the CBS for the NLFS-II. Number of households at ward level was obtained from the 2001 Population Census. CBS has constructed a data set with basic information (number of households, total population, and male and female population) at the ward level. This data set was used to construct the frame for the selection of primary sampling units (PSUs). The PSU for the NLFS-II were either individual wards or sub-wards or groups of contiguous wards in the same VDC. A group of wards was considered as single PSU, to ensure that each unit continued at least 30 households. For the ultimate sample selection of households in the NLFS-II, a frame was prepared in each ward selected at the earlier stage of sampling. A list of all households was prepared in all the wards selected for the survey. Selection of households was carried out from these listings using systematic sampling with a random start. Before the listing, an intensive cartographic work was undertaken (in the urban areas and some of the rural areas) to form appropriate enumeration block having around 200 households.

(b) STRATIFICATION

For the NLFS-II sample selection, 75 districts along with the urban and rural areas were grouped into six strata - mountains, urban areas of the Kathmandu valley, other urban areas in the hills, rural hills, urban hills, urban Tarai and rural Tarai. These six strata of the NLFS-II were further regrouped into 14 strata for the NLSS-III purposes. The "explicit" strata formed for the NLSS-III were as follows: mountains, urban areas of the Kathmandu valley, other urban areas in the hills, rural eastern hills, rural central hills, rural western hills, rural mid-western hills, rural far-western hills, urban Tarai, rural eastern Tarai, rural central Tarai, rural western Tarai, rural mid-western Tarai, and rural far-western Tarai.

(c) SAMPLE DESIGN

The sample design adopted in LSS-III was modified sub-sample of the sample adopted in NLFS-II. For the NLFS-II, 800 PSUs were selected - 400 PSUs each from urban and rural areas. As mentioned earlier, the PSU for the NLFS-II was a ward or a sub-ward or a combination of wards. The PSUs were selected with probability proportional to size, the measure of size being the number of households. For the LSS-III, two independent samples were selected: the first was a cross sectional sample and the second was a panel. The panel sample consisted of PSUs and households previously enumerated in one or both of the past two rounds of the survey.

(d) SAMPLE SIZE

The sample size for the survey was estimated at 7200 households in 600 PSUs. Among them, 100 PSUs with 1200 households interviewed in the LSS-I or LSS-II were selected for re-interviewing in the LSS-III. 500 PSUs with 6000 households were selected as the cross-section sample. The PSUs were selected with probability proportional to size, the measure of size being the number of households in each ward. As mentioned earlier, twelve households were selected for the enumeration from each of the selected PSU.

Mode of data collection
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Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]

Cleaning operations
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Each of 20 field teams consisted of 5 members in which one person was specially trained for data entry and consistency checking. The supervisor of the team was responsible for final editing and consistency checks at the field level. Each field teams were provided with a laptop computer for data entry and they were required to complete the data entry and editing at the respective locality of data collection(PSU). CSPro version 3.3 was used for designing data entry codes. The data management package was embedded with specially designed consistency check codes for possible errors. The data collectors were required to revisit the households to verify for any missing or inconsistent values that were detected while running consistency checks. As in the previous two rounds of the survey, a distinctive feature of the LSS-III was the use of personal computer in the field. A data entry programme developed specifically for the survey was installed on each computer provided to the field teams. The data entry programme enabled the data entry operator as well as the team supervisor to find out mistakes and missing data (if any) and to perform inconsistency checks. When problems or errors were found, the interviewers returned to the households to correct the errors. The field supervision from the CBS included the real time check and verification of data entry work in the field. This process of real time entering, checking and correcting data in the field helped to enhance the quality of data collected. It also reduced the time lag between data collection and data processing. This also helped to make data available for processing shortly after the completion of the collection phase. After the completion of the field work (including data entry), the data diskettes were sent back to the CBS from the field. Data processing and analysis was done in the CBS using STATA statistical software package.

摘要
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NLSS-III的主要目标是更新关于民众生活水平的资料。该调查旨在评估过去7年间各种政府政策和计划对该国社会经济变化的影响。此外，调查还旨在追踪过去十五年和七年间之前登记的家庭所经历的变化。1995-1996年的尼泊尔生活水平调查（LSS-I）在收集衡量民众生活水平以及确定国家贫困水平的数据方面是一个里程碑。LSS-I首次提供了关于尼泊尔“贫困的广度和深度”的衡量标准。该调查结果在政府机构决策者、公众和国际机构中广受欢迎。人们意识到，有必要进行第二次调查以更新结果并评估政策和计划多年来对贫困和社会指标的影响（自LSS-I以来）。因此，在首次调查后的8年，于2003/04年进行了第二次调查（LSS-II）。
LSS-II的调查结果帮助政府监测提高国民生活水平的进展，该调查成为监测千年发展目标（MDGs）随时间推移的良好基础。认识到时间序列数据的重要性，尼泊尔政府决定进行另一轮尼泊尔生活水平调查。因此，国家统计局第三次在2010/11年（LSS-III）进行了调查。调查在世界的帮助下进行。
地理覆盖范围
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全国
分析单位
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家庭
总体
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所有国家家庭均被认为有资格被选中参与调查。然而，该调查排除了外交使团的住宅。机构住宅（如居住在学校宿舍、监狱、军营和医院的人）也被排除在外。家庭成员的确定基于他们通常的居住地。居住在国内的外国公民，如果他们的通常居住地在国内，则包括在调查中。
数据类型
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样本调查数据[ssd]
抽样程序
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(a)抽样框架
LSS-III调查的初始框架基于为2008年尼泊尔劳动力调查（NLFS-II）准备的框架。这是为了“利用国家统计局为NLFS-II进行的制图分割和家庭列表操作”的优势。从2001年人口普查中获得了区级家庭数量。国家统计局构建了一个包含基本信息（家庭数量、总人口以及男性和女性人口）的区级数据集。该数据集被用于构建选择一级抽样单位（PSU）的框架。NLFS-II的PSU要么是单个区、次区，要么是同一VDC中连续区的组合。一组区被视为单个PSU，以确保每个单位至少有30个家庭。在NLFS-II的家庭最终样本选择中，为在先前抽样阶段选中的每个区准备了家庭清单。从这些清单中选择家庭进行系统抽样，并从随机起点开始。在清单编制之前，进行了密集的制图工作（在城区和一些农村地区），以形成大约有200个家庭的适当编制区块。
(b)分层
对于NLFS-II样本选择，75个区和城乡地区被分为六个层 - 山区、加德满都谷地的城区、山区的其他城区、农村山区、山区的城区、塔瑞的城区和农村塔瑞。NLFS-II的这六个层进一步重组为14层，用于NLSS-III的目的。NLSS-III为以下“明确”层形成：山区、加德满都谷地的城区、山区的其他城区、东部山区的农村、中部山区的农村、西部山区的农村、中部西部山区的农村、远西部山区的农村、塔瑞的城区、东部塔瑞的农村、中部塔瑞的农村、西部塔瑞的农村、中部西部塔瑞的农村和远西部塔瑞的农村。
(c)样本设计
LSS-III采用的样本设计是对NLFS-II采用的样本的修改后的子样本。对于NLFS-II，选定了800个PSU - 城区和农村地区各400个PSU。如前所述，NLFS-II的PSU是一个区、次区或区的组合。PSU是以规模比例选择，规模以家庭数量衡量。对于LSS-III，选定了两个独立样本：第一个是横断面样本，第二个是面板样本。面板样本包括过去两轮调查中已登记的PSU和家庭。
(d)样本量
调查的样本量估计为7200户家庭，分布在600个PSU中。其中，100个PSU中的1200户家庭在LSS-I或LSS-II中被选中，在LSS-III中进行重新访谈。500个PSU中的6000户家庭被选中作为横断面样本。PSU是以规模比例选择，规模以每个区中的家庭数量衡量。如前所述，从每个选定的PSU中选择了十二户家庭进行统计。
数据收集方式
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计算机辅助个人访谈[capi]
清理操作
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每个由5名成员组成的20个现场团队中，有1人专门接受数据录入和一致性检查的培训。团队的负责人负责在实地进行最终编辑和一致性检查。每个现场团队都配备了笔记本电脑进行数据录入，他们必须在数据收集的相应地点（PSU）完成数据录入和编辑。CSPro版本3.3被用于设计数据录入代码。数据管理包中嵌入了专门设计的用于检查可能错误的一致性检查代码。数据收集员必须重新访问家庭以验证在运行一致性检查时发现的任何缺失或不一致值。与之前两轮调查一样，LSS-III的一个显著特点是现场使用个人电脑。为现场团队提供的每台电脑上都安装了专门为调查开发的数据库录入程序。该数据库录入程序使数据录入操作员以及团队负责人能够找出错误和缺失数据（如果有的话），并执行一致性检查。当发现问题时，访谈员会返回家庭以纠正错误。国家统计局的现场监督包括对现场数据录入工作的实时检查和验证。这一过程中实时录入、检查和纠正数据有助于提高收集到的数据质量。这还缩短了数据收集和数据处理的时滞。这也帮助在收集阶段完成后不久即可对数据进行处理。在完成现场工作（包括数据录入）后，数据软盘从现场送回国家统计局。使用STATA统计软件包在国家统计局进行处理和分析。