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Activity Number: 252
Type: Contributed
Date/Time: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
Abstract - #308544
Title: Estimating the Distribution of Distances for a Large-Scale Complex Survey
Author(s): Jianqiang Wang*+ and Jean Opsomer
Companies: Iowa State University and Iowa State University
Address: CSSM, Ames, IA, 50011,
Keywords: distance metric ; kernel estimation ; empirical distribution ; estimating equations ; generalized median
Abstract:

Many finite populations targeted by sample surveys consist of homogenous subpopulations with respect to the variables being collected. We propose a sample-based estimator for the subpopulation distribution functions of the distances between the elements and the subpopulation centers, and explore several definitions of distance in the data and different ways to define the subpopulation centers. We describe the theoretical properties of the estimator, and propose a variance estimator. We discuss a procedure to identify outliers in large-scale surveys that takes advantage of the estimated subpopulation distribution functions, and apply it to data from the National Resources Inventory.


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Revised September, 2007