Indirect estimators in US federal programs
As the editor remarks, the purpose of the monograph is to document, in a manner that facilitates comparisons, the practices and estimation methods of federal statistical programs that use indirect estimators to produce published estimates. These kinds of studies emerge because these programs are generally developed with respect to national data needs. In the book eight programs in the U.S. Federal Statistical System are included. These studies relate to fields such as state infant and maternal health characteristics; state and county estimates of personal income, annual income and gross product; postcensal population estimates for counties; employment acreage for counties; livestock inventories; crop production and acreage for counties; disabilities hospital utilization, physician and dental visits for states; and state estimates of median income for four person families. In all cases the authors on the different subjects mention the actual problems, translate them into estimable models and discuss the policy recommendations of the outcomes. Ignoring special US-problems, the papers in the book provide a sound methodological approach to give answers to their specific questions. In this sense the book is a useful reader to all other researchers concerned with similar questions as well as to those, who want to learn how to translate specific problems into a formal model structure.
scientific article; zbMATH DE number 833040