Over the last decade there has been growing demand for estimates of population characteristics at small area level. Unfortunately, cost constraints in the design of sample surveys lead to small sample sizes within these areas and as a result direct estimation, using only the survey data, is...

In this paper we perform a statistical evaluation of whether it is worthwhile, in economic terms, to resist to extortion demands by the maa, from the point of view of rms operating in an area dominated by criminal organizations. We use a unique collected and matched database on rm...

Small area estimation is conventionally concerned with the estimation of small area averages and totals. More recently emphasis has been also placed on the estimation of poverty indicators and of key quantiles of the small area distribution function using robust models, for example, the...

Small area estimators are often based on linear mixed models under the assumption that relationships among variables are stationary across the area of interest (Fay–Herriot models). This hypothesis is patently violated when the population is divided into heterogeneous latent subgroups. In this...