Estimating the size and distribution of networked populations with snowball sampling

Recent Advances on Estimating Population Size with Link-Tracing Sampling

A new approach to estimate population size based on a stratified link-tracing sampling design is presented. The method extends on the Frank and Snijders (1994) approach by allowing for heterogeneity in the initial sample selection procedure. Rao-Blackwell estimators and corresponding resampling approximations similar to that detailed in Vincent and Thompson (2017) are explored. An empirical application is provided for a hard-to-reach networked population. The results demonstrate that the approach has much potential for application to such populations. Supplementary materials for this article a…

利用独立集抽样估计社会网络中的政策效应

Estimating Policy Effects in a Social Network with Independent Set Sampling

本文提出将独立集网络抽样与SAOM结合的策略，以隔离政策直接效应并估计净效应，模拟验证了其有效性。

Simple estimators for network sampling

A new estimation method is presented for network sampling designs, including Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) and Snowball (SB) sampling. These types of link-tracing designs are essential for studies of hidden populations, such as people at risk for HIV. The simple idea behind the new method is to run a fast-sampling process on the sample network data to estimate the inclusion probabilities of the actual survey, and incorporate those in unequal probability estimators of population means and proportions. Improved versions of the usual RDS and SB designs are also proposed, termed RDS+ and SB+, t…

Reducing Seed Bias in Respondent-Driven Sampling by Estimating Block Transition Probabilities

Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) is a popular approach to study marginalized or hard-to-reach populations. It collects samples from a networked population by incentivizing participants to refer their friends into the study. One major challenge in analyzing RDS samples is seed bias. Seed bias refers to the fact that when the social network is divided into multiple communities (or blocks), the RDS sample might not provide a balanced representation of the different communities in the population, and such unbalance is correlated with the initial participant (or the seed). In this case, the distrib…