Understanding Society User Support

Nico,

1. The provision of weights requires the ability to estimate probabilities of continuing to respond over multiple waves. This is true of cross-sectional weights as well as longitudinal ones, as they are derived from the longitudinal ones (how this was done is described in section 3.8.3.10 of the User Guide). In consequence, a person in a household where there is no person who has been enumerated at every wave up to wave w will get a weight of zero. Such people should not be given a weight, as the weights for all other sample members are calculated in a way that compensates for these "missing" people.
2. If you are pooling all people with a non-zero value of the respective weight in each of the six waves, the mean of newwgt would be 1.0. But it looks like you have dropped some cases of some kind?
3. Yes, this is the final step in the derivation of each weight, as described in the User Guide. Thus, the mean of each weight, amongst cases with a non-zero value, is always 1.0.
4. sum newwgt if newwgt>0 - 'Obs' is the unweighted number of observations. total newwgt if newwgt>0 - 'Total' is the weighted number of observations.

Peter