Generalized Variance Functions.

In this chapter, we discuss the possibility of a simple mathematical relationship connecting the variance or relative variance of a survey estimator to the expectation of the estimator. If the parameters of the model can be estimated from past data or from a small subset of the survey items, then variance estimates can be produced for all survey items simply by evaluating the model at the survey estimates rather than by direct computation. We shall call this method of variance estimation the method of generalized variance functions (GVF). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]