Online Program

Sampling Coordination of Business Surveys Conducted by INSEE
Fabien GUGGEMOS, INSEE 
*Olivier SAUTORY, INSEE 


Keywords: sample coordination, random numbers, response burden, stratified samples

The method presently used at INSEE for negative coordination is based on the use of random numbers, drawn according to the uniform distribution on [0,1[. In a given stratum, the units with the smallest numbers are selected. After the draw, a rotation is carried out on the random numbers : the units that have just been selected have a lower probability of being selected in the next drawing, while maintaining good properties to classical statistical estimators. Other schemes are used to achieve positive coordination.

A new method of coordination, which generalizes the current technique, is now experimented at INSEE, and presented in this paper. The random number is replaced by a "coordination function", which transforms the random numbers, and has the characteristic of preserving uniform probability. This function changes with each selection, depending on the desired type of coordination : negative coordination for separate samples or updating panels. This method takes into account the cumulative response burden over several samples, and can be used with Poisson sampling and stratified simple random sampling.