Two Simple Methods to Improve Official Statistics for Small Subpopulations

Journal article | Zeitschriftenartikel

Many important statistics are known from official records for the entire population, but have to be estimated for subpopulations. I describe two simple data combination methods that reduce the substantial sampling error of the commonly used direct survey estimates for small subpopulations. The first estimator incorporates information from repeated cross-sections, while the second estimator uses the knowledge of the statistic for the overall population to improve accuracy of the estimates for subpopulations. To evaluate the estimators, I compare the estimated number of female and elderly recipients of a government transfer program by county to the "true" number from administrative data on all recipients in New York. I find that even the simple estimators substantially improve survey error. Incorporating the statistic of interest for the overall population yields particularly large error reductions and can reduce non-sampling error.

Object Details

• ISSN: 1864-3361
• Extent: Seite(n): 181-192
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Status: Veröffentlichungsversion; begutachtet (peer reviewed)

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Survey Research Methods, 12(3)

Classification and Topics

• Subject: Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie ; Erhebungstechniken und Analysetechniken der Sozialwissenschaften ; amtliche Statistik ; Schätzung ; Stichprobenfehler ; Datenqualität

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Mittag, Nikolas
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Deutschland
• (when): 2018

Further information

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.18148/srm/2018.v12i3.7309
• Last update: 21.06.2024, 4:26 PM CEST