An empirical evaluation of small area estimators

Àlex Costa, Albert Satorra and Eva Ventura

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Abstract: This paper investigates the comparative performance of five small area estimators. We use Monte Carlo simulation in the context of both theoretical and empirical populations. In addition to the direct and indirect estimators, we consider the optimal composite estimator with population weights, and two composite estimators with estimated weights: one that assumes homogeneity of within area variance and square bias, and another one that uses area specific estimates of variance and square bias. It is found that among the feasible estimators, the best choice is the one that uses area specific estimates of variance and square bias.

Keywords: Regional statistics; small areas; root mean square error; direct; indirect and composite estimators (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C15 C52 J21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003-04, Revised 2003-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ecm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:upf:upfgen:674

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