Special Issue, Volume 21, Number 4, August 2020 ISSN 1234-7655 STATISTICS IN TRANSITION new series An International Journal of the Polish Statistical Association and Statistics Poland STATISTICAL DATA INTEGRATION − Special Issue Partha Lahiri, Preface Invited paper Malay Ghosh, Small area estimation: its evolution in five decades Discussions: Gershunskaya J., Han Y., Li Y., Molina I., Newhouse D., Pfeffermann D., Rao J. N. K. Original articles Cai S., Rao J. N. K., Dumitrescu L., Chatrchi G., Effective transformation-based variable selection under two-fold subarea models in small area estimation Neves A. F. A., Silva D. B. N., Moura F. A. S., Skew normal small area time models for the Brazilian annual service sector survey Di Consiglio L., Tuoto T., A comparison of area level and unit level small area models in the presence of linkage errors Bera S., Chatterjee S., High dimensional, robust, unsupervised record linkage Saegusa T., Confidence bands for a distribution function with merged data from multiple sources Zhang X., Pyne S., Kedem B., Model selection in radon data fusion Bonnery D., Cheng Y., Lahiri P., An evaluation of design-based properties of different composite estimators Burgard J. P., Dieckmann H., Krause J., Merkle H., Münnich R., Neufang K. M., Schmaus S., A generic business process model for conducting microsimulation studies Alam M. J., Dostie B., Drechsler J., Vilhuber L., Applying data synthesis for longitudinal business data across three countries Lahiri P., Suntornchost J., A general Bayesian approach to meet different inferential goals in poverty research for small areas EDITOR Włodzimierz Okrasa, University of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, Warsaw and Statistics Poland [email protected]; Phone number 00 48 22 — 608 30 66 ASSOCIATE EDITORS Arup Banerji The World Bank, Ralf Münnich University of Trier, Germany Washington, USA Mischa V. Belkindas Open Data Watch, Oleksandr H. National Academy of Statistics, Washington D.C., USA Osaulenko Accounting and Audit, Kiev, Ukraine Sanjay Chaudhuri National University of Viera Pacáková University of Pardubice, Singapore, Singapore Czech Republic Eugeniusz Gatnar National Bank of Poland, Tomasz Panek Warsaw School of Economics, Poland Poland Krzysztof Jajuga Wrocław University of Mirosław Pawlak University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Economics, Wrocław, Poland Canada Marianna Kotzeva EC, Eurostat, Luxembourg Mirosław Szreder University of Gdańsk, Poland Marcin Kozak University of Information Imbi Traat University of Tartu, Estonia Technology and Management in Rzeszów, Poland Danute Krapavickaite Institute of Mathematics and Vijay Verma Siena University, Siena, Italy Informatics, Vilnius, Lithuania Janis Lapiņš Statistics Department, Bank Vergil Voineagu National Commission for Statistics, of Latvia, Riga, Latvia Bucharest, Romania Risto Lehtonen University of Helsinki, Finland Gabriella Vukovich Hungarian Central Statistical Office, Hungary Achille Lemmi Siena University, Siena, Italy Jacek Wesołowski Central Statistical Office of Poland, and Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland Andrzej Młodak Statistical Office Poznań, Guillaume Wunsch Université Catholiąue de Louvain, Poland Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium Colm A, University of Chicago, Zhanjun Xing Shandong University, China O'Muircheartaigh Chicago, USA EDITORIAL BOARD Dominik Rozkrut (Co-Chairman) Statistics Poland Waldemar Tarczyński (Co-Chairman) University of Szczecin, Poland Czesław Domański University of Łódź, Poland Malay Ghosh University of Florida, USA Graham Kalton Westat, USA Mirosław Krzyśko Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland Partha Lahiri University of Maryland, USA Danny Pfeffermann Central Bureau of Statistics, Israel Carl-Erik Särndal Statistics Sweden, Sweden Janusz L. Wywiał University of Economics in Katowice, Poland FOUNDER/FORMER EDITOR Jan Kordos Warsaw School of Economics, Poland EDITORIAL OFFICE ISSN 1234-7655 Scientific Secretary Marek Cierpiał-Wolan, e-mail: [email protected] Secretary Patryk Barszcz, e-mail: [email protected], phone number + 48 22 — 608 33 66 Technical Assistant Rajmund Litkowiec, e-mail: [email protected] Address for correspondence Statistics Poland, al. Niepodległości 208, 00-925 Warsaw, Poland, Tel./fax:00 48 22 — 825 03 95 I CONTENTS From the Editor ............................................................................................................................... II Partha Lahiri, Preface .................................................................................................................... III Submission information for authors ............................................................................................ VII Invited Paper Malay Ghosh, Small area estimation: its evolution in five decades ......................................... 1 Gershunskaya J., Discussion ......................................................................................................... 23 Han Y., Discussion ......................................................................................................................... 30 Li Y., Discussion ............................................................................................................................. 35 Molina I., Discussion ..................................................................................................................... 40 Newhouse D., Discussion ............................................................................................................... 45 Pfeffermann D., Discussion ......................................................................................................... 51 Rao J. N. K., Discussion ................................................................................................................. 53 Ghosh M., Rejoinder ...................................................................................................................... 59 Small Area Estimation Cai S., Rao J. N. K., Dumitrescu L., Chatrchi G., Effective transformation-based variable selection under two-fold subarea models in small area estimation ....................... 68 Neves A. F. A., Silva D. B. N., Moura F. A. S., Skew normal small area time models for the Brazilian annual service sector survey ................................................................................ 84 Advances in Probabilistic Record Linkage and Analysis of Linked Data Di Consiglio L., Tuoto T., A comparison of area level and unit level small area models in the presence of linkage errors ................................................................................................ 103 Bera S., Chatterjee S., High dimensional, robust, unsupervised record linkage .................. 123 Statistical Methods for Longitudinal Data, Merged Data and Data Fusion Saegusa T., Confidence bands for a distribution function with merged data from multiple sources ........................................................................................................................... 144 Zhang X., Pyne S., Kedem B., Model selection in radon data fusion .................................... 159 Bonnery D., Cheng Y., Lahiri P., An evaluation of design-based properties of different composite estimators ................................................................................................................... 166 Synthetic Data for Microsimulations, Disclosure Avoidance and Multi-purpose Inference Burgard J. P., Dieckmann H., Krause J., Merkle H., Münnich R., Neufang K. M., Schmaus S., A generic business process model for conducting microsimulation studies ............................................................................................................................................ 191 Alam M. J., Dostie B., Drechsler J., Vilhuber L., Applying data synthesis for longitudinal business data across three countries ................................................................... 212 Lahiri P., Suntornchost J., A general Bayesian approach to meet different inferential goals in poverty research for small areas .................................................................................. 237 About the Guest Co-Editors .......................................................................................................... 254 About the Authors .......................................................................................................................... 256 Special Issue, Volume 21, Number 4, August 2020 II STATISTICS IN TRANSITION new series, Special Issue, August 2020 Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. II From the Editor The Editors and Editorial Board of the Statistics in Transition new series (SiTns) have great pleasure in presenting this special issue on statistical data integration to our readers. We are very grateful for the efforts taken by all those who contributed to the production of this special issue that made its publication possible. We believe that this volume represents not only the state-of-the-art in the relevant topic areas, but that it will also help to identify new research avenues for study in the years to come. Behind such an ambitious and demanding endeavor, there is always a key role to be played by an intellectual and organizational leader. Practically, we owe this product personally to Professor Partha Lahiri, who kindly accepted an invitation by SiTns Editorial Board member Graham Kalton and me to act as Editor-in-Chief of this special issue. We are very grateful to Malay Ghosh, another long-term member of the SiTns’