Efficient Estimators for Adaptive Two-Stage Sequential Sampling

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Journal Article
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Publisher
University of Canterbury. Mathematics and Statistics
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Date
2010
Authors
Salehi, M.
Moradi, M.
Brown, J.A.
Smith, D.
Abstract

In stratified sampling, methods for the allocation of effort among strata usually rely on some measure of within-stratum variance. If we do not have enough information about these variances, adaptive allocation can be used. In adaptive allocation designs, surveys are conducted in two phases. Information from the first phase is used to allocate the remaining units among the strata in the second phase. Brown et al. [Adaptive two-stage sequential sampling, Popul. Ecol. 50 (2008), pp. 239–245] introduced an adaptive allocation sampling design – where the final sample size was random – and an unbiased estimator. Here, we derive an unbiased variance estimator for the design, and consider a related design where the final sample size is fixed. Having a fixed final sample size can make survey-planning easier. We introduce a biased Horvitz–Thompson type estimator and a biased sample mean type estimator for the sampling designs. We conduct two simulation studies on honey producer in Kurdistan and synthetic zirconium distribution in a region on the moon. Results show that the introduced estimators are more efficient than the available estimators for both variable and fixed sample size designs, and the conventional unbiased estimator of stratified simple random sampling design. In order to evaluate efficiencies of the introduced designs and their estimator furthermore, we first review some well-known adaptive allocation designs and compare their estimator with the introduced estimators. Simulation results show that the introduced estimators are more efficient than available estimators of these well-known adaptive allocation designs.

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Citation
Salehi, M., Moradi, M., Brown, J.A., Smith, D. (2010) Efficient Estimators for Adaptive Two-Stage Sequential Sampling. Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, (early access online).
Keywords
stratified population, Neyman’s allocation, Horvitz–Thompson type estimator, sample mean type estimator
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