Coordinating samples using the microstrata methodology

This paper discusses in detail issues dealing with the technical aspects of designing and conducting surveys. It is intended for an audience of survey methodologists.

The use of sample co-ordination in business surveys is crucial because it provides a way of smoothing out the survey burden. In many co-ordination methodologies, the random numbers representing the units are permanent and the sample selection method varies. In the microstrata methodology, however, it is the selection function that is permanent. On the other hand, random numbers are systematically rearranged between units for different co-ordination purposes: smoothing out the burden, updating panels or minimizing the overlap between two surveys. These rearrangements are made in the intersections of strata, known as microstrata. This microstrata method has good, mathematical properties and demonstrates a general approach to sample co-ordination in which births, deaths and strata changes are automatically handled. There are no particular constraints on stratification and rotation rates of panels. Two software programs have been written to implement this method and its evolutions: SALOMON in 1998, and MICROSTRAT in 2001.