Small area estimation in practice an applocation to agricultural business survey data

This paper describes an application of small area estimation (SAbl to agricultural business survey data. Both well known small area estimators, such as the empirical best linear unbiased predictor (EBLUP), and more recently proposed small area estimators, for example, tile M-quanlile, the robust EBLUP aml!he Model Ansed Direct estimators arc considered. Mean squared error estimation is discussed. Using a real agricultural business survey dataset, we place emphasis on model diagnostics for specifying the small area working model, on diagnostic measures for validating the reliability of direct and indirect (modelbased) small area e.~timators i1nd on providing practical guidelines to the prospective user of small area estimation techniques.