On aligned composite estimates from overlapping samples for growth rates and totals - ARCHIVED

When monthly business surveys are not completely overlapping, there are two different estimators for the monthly growth rate of the turnover: (i) one that is based on the monthly estimated population totals and (ii) one that is purely based on enterprises observed on both occasions in the overlap of the corresponding surveys. The resulting estimates and variances might be quite different. This paper proposes an optimal composite estimator for the growth rate as well as the population totals.