SOME THEORY OF SAMPLING ON SUCCESSIVE OCCASIONS1

One of the important theoretical developments in successive sampling has been to provide an optimum estimate by combining two independent estimates (i) a double-sampling regression estimate from the matched portion of the sample using one auxiliary variable with (ii) a mean per unit estimate based on the unmatched portion of the sample. Theory has been generalized in the present paper to provide the optimum estimate by combining a double-sampling multivariate ratio or regression estimate using p auxiliary variables (p≥1) from the matched portion of the sample with a mean per unit estimate from the unmatched portion of the sample. Results have been presented for the more general and practical case when the samples on the two occasions are of unequal size.