Pub Date : 2023-06-13DOI: 10.59170/stattrans-2023-029
G. Kalton
At the beginning of the 20th century, there was an active debate about random selection of units versus purposive selection of groups of units for survey samples. Neyman’s (1934) paper tilted the balance strongly towards varieties of probability sampling combined with design-based inference, and most national statistical offices have adopted this method for their major surveys. However, nonprobability sampling has remained in widespread use in many areas of application, and over time there have been challenges to the Neyman paradigm. In recent years, the balance has tilted towards greater use of nonprobability sampling for several reasons, including: the growing imperfections and costs in applying probability sample designs; the emergence of the internet and other sources for obtaining survey data from very large samples at low cost and at high speed; and the current ability to apply advanced methods for calibrating nonprobability samples to conform to external population controls. This paper presents an overview of the history of the use of probability and nonprobability sampling from the birth of survey sampling at the time of A. N. Kiær (1895) to the present day.
{"title":"Probability vs. Nonprobability Sampling: From the Birth of Survey Sampling to the\u0000 Present Day","authors":"G. Kalton","doi":"10.59170/stattrans-2023-029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.59170/stattrans-2023-029","url":null,"abstract":"At the beginning of the 20th century, there was an active debate about random\u0000 selection of units versus purposive selection of groups of units for survey samples.\u0000 Neyman’s (1934) paper tilted the balance strongly towards varieties of probability\u0000 sampling combined with design-based inference, and most national statistical offices\u0000 have adopted this method for their major surveys. However, nonprobability sampling has\u0000 remained in widespread use in many areas of application, and over time there have been\u0000 challenges to the Neyman paradigm. In recent years, the balance has tilted towards\u0000 greater use of nonprobability sampling for several reasons, including: the growing\u0000 imperfections and costs in applying probability sample designs; the emergence of the\u0000 internet and other sources for obtaining survey data from very large samples at low cost\u0000 and at high speed; and the current ability to apply advanced methods for calibrating\u0000 nonprobability samples to conform to external population controls. This paper presents\u0000 an overview of the history of the use of probability and nonprobability sampling from\u0000 the birth of survey sampling at the time of A. N. Kiær (1895) to the present\u0000 day.","PeriodicalId":37985,"journal":{"name":"Statistics in Transition","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43980508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}