Preprint #96-24



On a Class of Partially Balanced Incomplete Block Designs with Applications in Survey Sampling

by

Kyoungah See, Sung Y. Song and John Stufken


Abstract

We revisit the existence and construction problems of balanced sampling plans excluding contiguous units, a class of designs introduced and studied by Hedayat, Rao and Stufken (1988a,b). A link between these designs and a class of partially balanced incomplete block designs is established, and a Fisher-type inequality is shown to hold. Special attention is given to those designs that attain equality in this Fisher-type inequality. Some new designs are obtained by construction, while the nonexistence of designs is considered for some other sets of parameters.


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