SMALL AREA ESTIMATION USING SURVEY WEIGHTS WITH FUNCTIONAL MEASUREMENT ERROR IN THE COVARIATE

Abstract

Summary Nested error linear regression models using survey weights have been studied in small area estimation to obtain efficient model-based and design-consistent estimators of small area means. The covariates in these nested error linear regression models are not subject to measurement errors. In practical applications, however, there are many situations in which the covariates are subject to measurement errors. In this paper, we develop a nested error linear regression model with an area-level covariate subject to functional measurement error. In particular, we propose a pseudo-empirical Bayes (PEB) predictor to estimate small area means. This predictor borrows strength across areas through the model and makes use of the survey weights to preserve the design consistency as the area sample size increases. We also employ a jackknife method to estimate the mean squared prediction error (MSPE) of the PEB predictor. Finally, we report the results of a simulation study on the performance of our PEB predictor and associated jackknife MSPE estimator.