Thirty Years of The Network Scale-up Method

DOI10.1080/01621459.2021.1935267zbMATH Open1510.62475arXiv2011.12516MaRDI QIDQ6044641FDOQ6044641

Authors: Ian Laga, Le Bao, Xiaoyue Niu 

Publication date: 22 May 2023

Published in: Journal of the American Statistical Association (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Estimating the size of hard-to-reach populations is an important problem for many fields. The Network Scale-up Method (NSUM) is a relatively new approach to estimate the size of these hard-to-reach populations by asking respondents the question, "How many X's do you know," where X is the population of interest (e.g. "How many female sex workers do you know?"). The answers to these questions form Aggregated Relational Data (ARD). The NSUM has been used to estimate the size of a variety of subpopulations, including female sex workers, drug users, and even children who have been hospitalized for choking. Within the Network Scale-up methodology, there are a multitude of estimators for the size of the hidden population, including direct estimators, maximum likelihood estimators, and Bayesian estimators. In this article, we first provide an in-depth analysis of ARD properties and the techniques to collect the data. Then, we comprehensively review different estimation methods in terms of the assumptions behind each model, the relationships between the estimators, and the practical considerations of implementing the methods. Finally, we provide a summary of the dominant methods and an extensive list of the applications, and discuss the open problems and potential research directions in this area.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.12516

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zbMATH Keywords

small area estimationaggregated relational datakey populationssize estimation

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Sampling theory, sample surveys (62D05) Applications of statistics to social sciences (62P25) Social networks; opinion dynamics (91D30)

Cites Work

• Estimating population size using the network scale up method
• Latent Space Approaches to Social Network Analysis
• How Many People Do You Know in Prison?
• A critical threshold for design effects in network sampling
• Subsampling bootstrap of count features of networks
• Latent demographic profile estimation in hard-to-reach groups
• How many people do you know?: efficiently estimating personal network size
• Latent surface models for networks using aggregated relational data
• Social networks, reputation, and commitment: evidence from a Savings monitors experiment

Cited In (6)

• Estimating the size of populations at high risk for HIV using respondent-driven sampling data
• A Correlated Network Scale-up Model: Finding the Connection Between Subpopulations
• How Many People Do You Know in Prison?
• How many people do you know?: efficiently estimating personal network size
• Latent demographic profile estimation in hard-to-reach groups
• A Bayesian hierarchical model for combining multiple data sources in population size estimation

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