Bootstrapping to choose an estimator after sampling on two occasions

Email: a.brint{at}sheffield.ac.ukReceived on 22 August 2007. Accepted on 13 June 2008. When successive surveys are undertaken so as to keep a populationestimate up to date, combining the data from the most recentsurvey with data from earlier surveys is more efficient thanjust using the most recent survey. The standard approach tocombining the data forms separate estimates from the set ofitems observed on the earlier occasion and the set observedon the later occasion and then forms a combined estimate. Theapproach assumes that the population is very large and thatthe observed values of the variable of interest are continuous.In many situations, neither assumption is particularly appropriate.This paper compares an alternative approach with the standardapproach and finds that the alternative approach sometimes providesa better estimator. It then puts forward an improved estimatorbased on choosing between these approaches using a bootstrapprocedure.