Posted on Thursday, October 7, 2021
Prof. Dr. Balgobin Nandram, one of our past Council Members, is a Guest Editor for the Special Issue entitled “Small Area Estimation: Theories, Methods and Applications” in Stats. The deadline for manuscript submissions is December 31, 2021.
Please visit the Special Issue for more detailed information regarding manuscript submission. Attached below is a letter from Prof. Dr. Balgobin Nandram.
Dear Colleagues,
Small area estimation is important to many government agencies across the world as it is a vehicle used to build official statistics. It has grown to enormous importance over the past fifty years and is in practice today as the demand for small area statistics has significantly increased worldwide. Currently, there is a strong need for formulating policies and programs for the allocation of government funds and regional planning.
Recent advances in statistical methodology and computation, coupled with strong demand for disaggregated estimates, have led to the field of small area estimation expanding in many directions. Robust estimators and generalized linear mixed models accommodate non-normal distributions in unit-level responses. Non-parametric models allow for further flexibility in describing distributional forms and indirect relationships to covariates. Measurement error models and variable selection methods aid in the use of increasingly complex auxiliary data sources. Spatio-temporal and multivariate models capture dependencies among areas and variables. Proper studies on nonresponse and selection bias guard against biased predictors when the selection mechanisms are related to the characteristic of interest. The bootstrap and the Bayesian paradigm facilitate the construction of accurate prediction intervals and mean square errors of estimators, even for complex models, where parameters are nonlinear functions of response variables and there are clustering effects. Developments in statistical methods have enabled many important applications that rely on small area estimates. With all these new methods, judicious pooling of small areas is essential. Non-probability sampling is an emerging area.
I would like this Special Issue to contain papers in small area estimation that have strong theories, methods, and applications, and a mix of these broad areas. Therefore, I welcome papers that develop innovative small area methods or that demonstrate sound applications of small area estimation to problems of practical interest. Some prominent researchers in small area estimation have already agreed to submit papers for possible publication. I look forward to receiving your submission.
Prof. Dr. Balgobin Nandram
