Estimation of coefficient of dispersion using auxiliary information

In this note, we consider the problem of estimation of coefficient of dispersion of a study variable by making use of known value of the coefficient of dispersion of an auxiliary variable. We propose ratio and regression-type estimators. We derive expressions of bias and variance of the proposed estimators to the first order of approximation. The relative efficiencies of the ratio and regression-type estimators with respect to the naïve estimator are investigated through a simulation study.     

A Class of Estimators of Population Variance Using Auxiliary Information in Sample Surveys

This article advocates the problem of estimating the population variance of the study variable using information on certain known parameters of an auxiliary variable. A class of estimators for population variance using information on an auxiliary variable has been defined. In addition to many estimators, usual unbiased estimator, Isaki's (1983), Upadhyaya and Singh's (1999), and Kadilar and Cingi's (2006) estimators are shown as members of the proposed class of estimators. Asymptotic expressions for bias and mean square error of the proposed class of estimators have been obtained. An empirical study has been carried out to judge the performance of the various estimators of population variance generated from the proposed class of estimators over usual unbiased estimator, Isaki's (1983), Upadhyaya and Singh's (1999) and Kadilar and Cingi's (2006) estimators.     

Estimation of variance of mean using known coefficient of variation

An optimum unbiased estimator of the variance of mean is given It is defined as a function of the mean and itscustomary unbiased variance estimator, utilizing known coefficient of variation, skewness and kurtosis of the underlying distributions. Exact results are obtained. Normal and large sample cases receive particular treatment. The proposed variance estimator is generally more efficient than the customary variance estimator; its relative efficiency becomes appreciably higher for smaller coefficient of variation, smaller sample (in the normal case at least), higher negative skewness, or higher positive skewness with sufficiently large kurtosis. The empirical findings are reassuring and supportive.     

Estimation of mean in presence of non-response using two phase sampling scheme

This paper considers the problem of estimating the population mean using information on an auxiliary variable in presence of non-response. Some modified ratio, product and regression estimators in double sampling have been suggested and their properties are studied. It is shown that to the first degree of approximation, estimators based on estimated optimum values have the same variance as that of the optimum estimators. An empirical study is carried to judge the merits of the suggested estimators over conventional unbiased estimator and other known estimators. Both theoretical and empirical study results present the soundness and usefulness of the suggested estimators in practice.     

Use of scrambled response model in estimating the finite population mean in presence of non response when coefficient of variation is known

We propose an estimator for the finite population mean utilizing known coefficient of variation of the study character in case of quantitative sensitive variable considering a randomization mechanism on the second call that provides privacy protection to the respondents to get truthful information. We also propose generalized ratio- and regression-type estimators under two-phase sampling scheme. The conditions under which the proposed estimators are more efficient than the relevant estimators under scrambled response model have been obtained. An empirical study is carried out to evaluate performances of the estimators.     

Improved estimator of population total in PPS sampling

In this paper, we have considered an estimation of the population total Y of the study variable y, making use of information on an auxiliary variable x. A class of estimators for the population total Y using transformation on both the variables study as well as auxiliary has been suggested based on the probability proportional to size with replacement (PPSWR). In addition to many the usual PPS estimator, Reddy and Rao's (1977) estimator and Srivenkataramana and Tracy's (1979, 1984, 1986) estimators are shown to be members of the proposed class of estimators. The variance of the proposed class of estimators has been obtained. In particular, the properties of 75 estimators based on different known population parameters of the study as well as auxiliary variables have been derived from the proposed class of estimators. In support of the present study, numerical illustrations are given.     

Variance Estimators of the Gini Coefficient—Probability Sampling

An estimator of the Gini coefficient (the well-known income inequality measure) of a finite population is defined for an arbitrary probability sampling design, taking the sampling design into consideration. Alternative estimators of the variance of the estimated Gini coefficient are introduced. The sampling performance of the Gini coefficient estimator and its variance estimators is studied by means of a Monte Carlo study, using stratified sampling from a miniature population of Swedish households with authentic income data.     

A note on the estimation of variance of sample mean Using the knowledge of coefficient of variation in normal population

A class of estimators for the variance of sample mean is defined and its properties are studied in case of normal population. It is identified that the usual unbiased estimator, Singh, Pandey and Hirano (1973) -type estimator and Lee (1931) estimator are particular members of the proposed class of estimators. It is found that the minimum Mean Squared Error (MSE) of the proposed class of estimators is less than that of other estimators.     

On Optimum Regression Estimator for Population Mean Using Two Auxiliary Variables in Simple Random Sampling

In this paper, a difference-in-regression estimator is proposed by using two auxiliary variables in simple random sampling. Variance of proposed estimator up to the first order of approximation is compared with other competing estimators. Additionally, by taking the known value of one of the population regression coefficients, another version of the proposed estimator is also obtained. The proposed estimator is found optimum in the class of estimators based on two auxiliary variables. A simulation study is carried out in support with theoretical results. If only the means of auxiliary variables are available, another estimator can be obtained for large trivariate normal population.     

Estimation of population coefficient of variation in simple and stratified random sampling under two-phase sampling scheme when using two auxiliary variables

We propose an improved class of exponential ratio type estimators for coefficient of variation (CV) of a finite population in simple and stratified random sampling using two auxiliary variables under two-phase sampling scheme. We examine the properties of the proposed estimators based on first order of approximation. The proposed class of estimators is more efficient than the usual sample CV estimator, ratio estimator, exponential ratio estimator, usual difference estimator and modified difference type estimator. We also use real data sets for numerical comparisons.     

Median Estimation Using Double Sampling

This paper proposes a general class of estimators for estimating the median in double sampling. The position estimator, stratification estimator and regression type estimator attain the minimum variance of the general class of estimators. The optimum values of the first-phase and second-phase sample sizes are also obtained for the fixed cost and the fixed variance cases. An empirical study examines the performance of the double sampling strategies for median estimation. Finally, an extension of the methods of Chen & Qin (1993) and Kuk & Mak (1994) is considered for the double sampling strategy.     

Role of weights in improving the efficiency of Kim and Warde's mixed randomized response model

ABSTARCT

In this paper we have suggested a class of unbiased estimators of π_S, the proportion of respondents possessing a sensitive attribute A using mixed randomized response model. The variance of the proposed class of estimators has been obtained. In addition to Kim and Warde's (2005) estimator, several other acceptable estimators of π_S have been identified from the proposed class for suitable weights. It has been shown that the newly identified estimators are more efficient than the Kim and Warde's (2005) estimator. Numerical illustrations and graphs are also given in support of the present study.     

A jackknife variance estimator for unequal probability sampling

Summary.  The jackknife method is often used for variance estimation in sample surveys but has only been developed for a limited class of sampling designs. We propose a jackknife variance estimator which is defined for any without-replacement unequal probability sampling design. We demonstrate design consistency of this estimator for a broad class of point estimators. A Monte Carlo study shows how the proposed estimator may improve on existing estimators.     

Estimating the variance in nonparametric regression—what is a reasonable choice?

The exact mean-squared error (MSE) of estimators of the variance in nonparametric regression based on quadratic forms is investigated. In particular, two classes of estimators are compared: Hall, Kay and Titterington's optimal difference-based estimators and a class of ordinary difference-based estimators which generalize methods proposed by Rice and Gasser, Sroka and Jennen-Steinmetz. For small sample sizes the MSE of the first estimator is essentially increased by the magnitude of the integrated first two squared derivatives of the regression function. It is shown that in many situations ordinary difference-based estimators are more appropriate for estimating the variance, because they control the bias much better and hence have a much better overall performance. It is also demonstrated that Rice's estimator does not always behave well. Data-driven guidelines are given to select the estimator with the smallest MSE.     

Generalized ratio-type and ratio-exponential-type estimators for population mean under modified Horvitz-Thompson estimator in adaptive cluster sampling

In the present article, we propose the generalized ratio-type and generalized ratio-exponential-type estimators for population mean in adaptive cluster sampling (ACS) under modified Horvitz-Thompson estimator. The proposed estimators utilize the auxiliary information in combination of conventional measures (coefficient of skewness, coefficient of variation, correlation coefficient, covariance, coefficient of kurtosis) and robust measures (tri-mean, Hodges-Lehmann, mid-range) to increase the efficiency of the estimators. Properties of the proposed estimators are discussed using the first order of approximation. The simulation study is conducted to evaluate the performances of the estimators. The results reveal that the proposed estimators are more efficient than competing estimators for population mean in ACS under both modified Hansen-Hurwitz and Horvitz-Thompson estimators.     

Efficient Estimation of an Additive Quantile Regression Model

Abstract. In this paper, two non‐parametric estimators are proposed for estimating the components of an additive quantile regression model. The first estimator is a computationally convenient approach which can be viewed as a more viable alternative to existing kernel‐based approaches. The second estimator involves sequential fitting by univariate local polynomial quantile regressions for each additive component with the other additive components replaced by the corresponding estimates from the first estimator. The purpose of the extra local averaging is to reduce the variance of the first estimator. We show that the second estimator achieves oracle efficiency in the sense that each estimated additive component has the same variance as in the case when all other additive components were known. Asymptotic properties are derived for both estimators under dependent processes that are strictly stationary and absolutely regular. We also provide a demonstrative empirical application of additive quantile models to ambulance travel times.     

On the use of the Stein variance estimator in the double <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-class estimator when each individual regression coefficient is estimated

In this paper we consider the double k-class estimator which incorporates the Stein variance estimator. This estimator is called the SVKK estimator. We derive the explicit formula for the mean squared error (MSE) of the SVKK estimator for each individual regression coefficient. It is shown analytically that the MSE performance of the Stein-rule estimator for each individual regression coefficient can be improved by utilizing the Stein variance estimator. Also, MSE’s of several estimators included in a family of the SVKK estimators are compared by numerical evaluations.     

Inadmissibility of the uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimator of the inverse gaussian variance

The uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimator (UMVUE) of the variance of the inverse Gaussian distribution is shown to be inadmissible in terms of the mean squared error, and a dominating estimator is given. A dominating estimator to the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of the variance and estimators dominating the MLE's and the UMVUE's of other parameters are also given.     

Using generalized doubly robust estimator to estimate average treatment effects of multiple treatments in observational studies

The generalized doubly robust estimator is proposed for estimating the average treatment effect (ATE) of multiple treatments based on the generalized propensity score (GPS). In medical researches where observational studies are conducted, estimations of ATEs are usually biased since the covariate distributions could be unbalanced among treatments. To overcome this problem, Imbens [The role of the propensity score in estimating dose-response functions, Biometrika 87 (2000), pp. 706–710] and Feng et al. [Generalized propensity score for estimating the average treatment effect of multiple treatments, Stat. Med. (2011), in press. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sim.4168/abstract] proposed weighted estimators that are extensions of a ratio estimator based on GPS to estimate ATEs with multiple treatments. However, the ratio estimator always produces a larger empirical sample variance than the doubly robust estimator, which estimates an ATE between two treatments based on the estimated propensity score (PS). We conduct a simulation study to compare the performance of our proposed estimator with Imbens’ and Feng et al.’s estimators, and simulation results show that our proposed estimator outperforms their estimators in terms of bias, empirical sample variance and mean-squared error of the estimated ATEs.     

Exponential-Type Estimators of the Mean of a Sensitive Variable in the Presence of Nonsensitive Auxiliary Information

Sousa et al. and Gupta et al. suggested ratio and regression-type estimators of the mean of a sensitive variable using nonsensitive auxiliary variable. This article proposes exponential-type estimators using one and two auxiliary variables to improve the efficiency of mean estimator based on a randomized response technique. The expressions for the mean squared errors (MSEs) and bias, up to first-order approximation, have been obtained. It is shown that the proposed exponential-type estimators are more efficient than the existing estimators. The gain in efficiency over the existing estimators has also been shown with a simulation study and by using real data.