Improving small area estimation by combining surveys: new perspectives in regional statistics

A national survey designed for estimating a specific population quantity is sometimes used for estimation of this quantity also for a small area, such as a province. Budget constraints do not allow a greater sample size for the small area, and so other means of improving estimation have to be devised. We investigate such methods and assess them by a Monte Carlo study. We explore how a complementary survey can be exploited in small area estimation. We use the context of the Spanish Labour Force Survey (EPA) and the Barometer in Spain for our study.

Almost sure testability of classes of densities

Let a class $\F$ of densities be given. We draw an i.i.d.\ sample from a density $f$ which may or may not be in $\F$. After every $n$, one must make a guess whether $f \in \F$ or not. A class is almost surely testable if there exists such a testing sequence such that for any $f$, we make finitely many errors almost surely. In this paper, several results are given that allowone to decide whether a class is almost surely testable. For example, continuity and square integrability are not testable, but unimodality, log-concavity, and boundedness by a given constant are.

A zero-delay sequential scheme for lossy coding of individual sequences

We consider adaptive sequential lossy coding of bounded individual sequences when the performance is measured by the sequentially accumulated mean squared distortion. Theencoder and the decoder are connected via a noiseless channel of capacity $R$ and both are assumed to have zero delay. No probabilistic assumptions are made on how the sequence to be encoded is generated. For any bounded sequence of length $n$, the distortion redundancy is defined as the normalized cumulative distortion of the sequential scheme minus the normalized cumulative distortion of the best scalarquantizer of rate $R$ which is matched to this particular sequence. We demonstrate the existence of a zero-delay sequential scheme which uses common randomization in the encoder and the decoder such that the normalized maximum distortion redundancy converges to zero at a rate $n^{-1/5}\log n$ as the length of the encoded sequence $n$ increases without bound.

Inequalities for a new data-based method for selecting nonparametric density estimates

We continue the development of a method for the selection of a bandwidth or a number of design parameters in density estimation. We provideexplicit non-asymptotic density-free inequalities that relate the $L_1$ error of the selected estimate with that of the best possible estimate,and study in particular the connection between the richness of the classof density estimates and the performance bound. For example, our methodallows one to pick the bandwidth and kernel order in the kernel estimatesimultaneously and still assure that for {\it all densities}, the $L_1$error of the corresponding kernel estimate is not larger than aboutthree times the error of the estimate with the optimal smoothing factor and kernel plus a constant times $\sqrt{\log n/n}$, where $n$ is the sample size, and the constant only depends on the complexity of the family of kernels used in the estimate. Further applications include multivariate kernel estimates, transformed kernel estimates, and variablekernel estimates.

HIERFSTAT, a package for R to compute and test hierarchical F-statistics

The package HIERFSTAT for the statistical software R, created by the R Development Core Team, allows the estimate of hierarchical F-statistics from a hierarchy with any numbers of levels. In addition, it allows testing the statistical significance of population differentiation for these different levels, using a generalized likelihood-ratio test. The package HIERFSTAT is available at http://www.unil.ch/popgen/softwares/hierfstat.htm.

Iowa Public Library Statistics, July 2005-June 2006

The 2005-2006 (FY06) edition of Iowa Public Library Statistics includes information on income, expenditures, collections, circulation, and other measures, including staff. Each section is arranged by size code, then alphabetically by city. The totals and percentiles for each size code grouping are given immediately following the alphabetical listings. Totals for all reporting libraries are given at the end of each section. There are 542 libraries included in this publication; 10 did not report. The Table of Cities and Size Codes lists the libraries alphabetically and gives their size codes. The table allows a user of this publication to locate information about a specific library. The following table lists the size code designations, the population range in each size code, the number of libraries reporting in each size code, and the total population of the reporting libraries in each size code. The total population of the 542 libraries is 2,243,396. Population data is used to determine per capita figures used throughout the publication.

Iowa Public Library Statistics, July 2006-June 2007

The 2006-2007 (FY07) edition of Iowa Public Library Statistics includes information on income, expenditures, collections, circulation, and other measures, including staff. Each section is arranged by size code, then alphabetically by city. The totals and percentiles for each size code grouping are given immediately following the alphabetical listings. Totals and medians for all reporting libraries are given at the end of each section. There are 543 libraries included in this publication; 530 submitted a report. The table of size codes (page 6) lists the libraries alphabetically. The libraries in each section of the publication are listed by size code, then alphabetically by city. The following table lists the size code designations, the population range in each size code, the number of libraries reporting in each size code, and the total population of the reporting libraries in each size code. The total population served by the 543 libraries is 2,248,279. Population data is used to determine per capita figures throughout the publication.

Iowa Public Library Statistics, July 2007-June 2008

The 2007-2008 (FY08) edition of Iowa Public Library Statistics includes information on income, expenditures, collections, circulation, and other measures, including staff. Each section is arranged by size code, then alphabetically by city. The totals and percentiles for each size code grouping are given immediately following the alphabetical listings. Totals and medians for all reporting libraries are given at the end of each section. There are 543 libraries included in this publication; 522 submitted a report. The table of size codes (page 6) lists the libraries alphabetically. The following table lists the size code designations, the population range in each size code, the number of libraries reporting in each size code, and the total population of the reporting libraries in each sizecode. The total population served by the 543 libraries is 2,248,279. Population data is used to determine per capita figures throughout the publication.

Iowa Public Library Statistics Pocket Digest, 2008

The information in this digest comes from the FY08 Iowa Annual Public Library Survey. It reflects the activities of 522 of the 543 public libraries in Iowa. Full details may be found at http://www.statelibraryofiowa.org/ld/statistics. Information for the national rankings on pages 3 to 4 comes from Public Libraries in the United States: Fiscal Year 2006 by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Washington D.C., December 2008. http://harvester.census.gov/imls/pubs/pls/pub_detail.asp?id=121#

Iowa Public Library Statistics Pocket Digest, 2009

The information in this digest comes from the FY09 Iowa Annual Public Library Survey. It reflects the activities of 522 of the 543 public libraries in Iowa.

Iowa Public Library Statistics Pocket Digest, 2010

The information in this digest comes from the FY10 Iowa Annual Public Library Survey. It reflects the activities of 525 of the 543 public libraries in Iowa.