Comparison of estimators of population total in two-stage successive sampling using auxiliary information

Singh and Srivastava (1973) proposed a linear unbiased estimator of the population mean when sampling on successive occasions using several auxiliary variables whose known population means remain unchanged for all occasions. In this paper, three composite estimators T_1, T_2 and T_3, each utilising an auxiliary variable whose known population mean changes from one occasion to the next, are presented for the estimation of the current population total. The proposed estimators are compared with the ordinary estimator, T_0, and the usual successive sampling estimator, T \prime, of the current population total without the use of auxiliary information. We find that using auxiliary information in conjunction with successive sampling does not always uniformly produce a gain in efficiency over T_0 or T \prime. However, when applied to a survey of teak plantations to estimate the mean height of teak trees, T_1, T_2 and T_3 proved more efficient than T_0 and T \prime.