Bibtex export
@article{ Mittag2018, title = {Two Simple Methods to Improve Official Statistics for Small Subpopulations}, author = {Mittag, Nikolas}, journal = {Survey Research Methods}, number = {3}, pages = {181-192}, volume = {12}, year = {2018}, issn = {1864-3361}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.18148/srm/2018.v12i3.7309}, abstract = {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.}, keywords = {amtliche Statistik; official statistics; Schätzung; estimation; Stichprobenfehler; sampling error; Datenqualität; data quality}}