Analysis

The QUID system, which was designed and developed by INSEE (Paris) Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques- National Statistics and Economic Studies Institute, is an automatic coding system for survey data collected in the form of literal headings expressed in the terminology of the respondent. The system hinges on the use of a very wide knowledge base made up of real phrases coded by experts. This study deals primarily with the preliminary automatic standardization processing of the phrases, and then with the algorithm used to organize the phrase base into an optimized tree pattern. A sorting example is provided in the form of an illustration. At present, the processing of additional coding variables used to complement the information contained in the phrases presents certain difficulties, and these will be examined in detail. The QUID 2 project, an updated version of the system, will be discussed briefly.

For a given level of precision, Hidiroglou (1986) provided an algorithm for dividing the population into a take-all stratum and a take-some stratum so as to minimize the overall sample size assuming simple random sampling without replacement in the take-some stratum. Sethi (1963) provided an algorithm for optimum stratification of the population into a number of take-some strata. For the stratification of a highly skewed population, this article presents an iterative algorithm which has as objective the determination of stratification boundaries which split the population into a take-all stratum and a number of take-some strata. These boundaries are computed so as to minimize the resulting sample size given a level of relative precision, simple random sampling without replacement from the take-some strata and use of a power allocation among the take-some strata. The resulting algorithm is a combination of the procedures of Hidiroglou (1986) and Sethi (1963).

The QUID system, which was designed and developed by INSEE (Paris) Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques- National Statistics and Economic Studies Institute, is an automatic coding system for survey data collected in the form of literal headings expressed in the terminology of the respondent. The system hinges on the use of a very wide knowledge base made up of real phrases coded by experts. This study deals primarily with the preliminary automatic standardization processing of the phrases, and then with the algorithm used to organize the phrase base into an optimized tree pattern. A sorting example is provided in the form of an illustration. At present, the processing of additional coding variables used to complement the information contained in the phrases presents certain difficulties, and these will be examined in detail. The QUID 2 project, an updated version of the system, will be discussed briefly.

For a given level of precision, Hidiroglou (1986) provided an algorithm for dividing the population into a take-all stratum and a take-some stratum so as to minimize the overall sample size assuming simple random sampling without replacement in the take-some stratum. Sethi (1963) provided an algorithm for optimum stratification of the population into a number of take-some strata. For the stratification of a highly skewed population, this article presents an iterative algorithm which has as objective the determination of stratification boundaries which split the population into a take-all stratum and a number of take-some strata. These boundaries are computed so as to minimize the resulting sample size given a level of relative precision, simple random sampling without replacement from the take-some strata and use of a power allocation among the take-some strata. The resulting algorithm is a combination of the procedures of Hidiroglou (1986) and Sethi (1963).