CrowdMI: Multiple Imputation via Crowdsourcing

Abstract

Can humans impute missing data with similar proficiency as machines? This is the question we aim to answer in this paper. We present a novel idea of converting observations with missing data in to a survey questionnaire, which is presented to crowdworkers for completion. We replicate a multiple imputation framework by having multiple unique crowdworkers complete our questionnaire. Experimental results demonstrate that using our method, it is possible to generate valid imputations for qualitative and quantitative missing data, with results comparable to imputations generated by complex statistical models.