Calibrated linear unbiased estimators in finite population sampling

Sugden and Smith [2002. Exact linear unbiased estimation in survey sampling. J. Stat. Plann. Inf. 102, 25–38] and Rao [2002. Discussion of “Exact linear unbiased estimation in survey sampling”. J. Stat. Plann. Inf. 102, 39–40] suggested some useful techniques of deriving a linear unbiased estimator of a finite population total by modifying a given linear estimator. In this paper we suggest various generalizations of their results. In particular, we search for estimators satisfying the calibration property with respect to a related auxiliary variable and obtain some new calibrated unbiased ratio-type estimators for arbitrary sampling designs. We also explore a few properties of one of the estimators suggested in Sugden and Smith [2002. Exact linear unbiased estimation in survey sampling. J. Stat. Plann. Inf. 102, 25–38].