Robustness and optimal design under prediction models for finite populations - ARCHIVED

In many finite population sampling problems the design that is optimal in the sense of minimizing the variance of the best linear unbiased estimator under a particular working model is bad in the sense of robustness - it leaves the estimator extremely vulnerable to bias if the working model is incorrect. However there are some important models under which one design provides both efficiency and robustness. We present a theorem that identifies such models and their optimal designs.