3 West Bank Sample Design

The design for the West Bank is a multistage stratified one. As compared to Gaza, more prior information was available on the West Bank localities, providing opportunities for improving the sample design - at least concerning the practical preparatory work involved. The main features of the design are outlined in the following sections.

Stratification of Primary Sampling Units (PSUs)
The localities as defined by Benvenisti (adjusted for Camp Areas included in other types of localities) are the PSUs. The PSUs were stratified according to location (7 sub-districts) and status (5 categories, i.e. District Capitals (DC), Other Towns (OT), Developed Villages (DV), Underdeveloped Villages (UV) and Refugee Camps (RC)). The number of strata are thus 32 (3 of the theoretical 35 combinations of sub-district and status are empty). Table A.6 shows estimates of the strata populations:

Table A.6 Population estimates for West Bank strata. (Individuals all ages. Benvenisti/ estimates for 1987. "Permanent" population)

Status
Sub-districtDCOTDVUVRC
Bethlehem32,80018,30023,10030,00010,200
Hebron79,10044,00068,60024,1008,300
Jenin16,80036,00036,90056,70014,600
Jericho12,500..4,1003,400
Nablus80,800.42,60041,80026,200
Ramallah 24,80035,10025,20087,10015,500
Tulkarem 19,60029,60067,50035,80015,300

Although these estimates may be somewhat inaccurate, they cannot be dispensed with for want of more reliable alternatives. We assume they give a reasonably fair representation of the relative proportions of localities and strata, which for sampling purposes is the most relevant information.

Allocation of Household Sample on Strata
The sample size for the West Bank is 1,040 households (from which both the sample of 1,040 individuals and 520 women also are derived). The allocation of the household sample among strata is proportionate to the estimated population size. The allocation is shown in Table A.7.

Table A.7 Allocation of West Bank household sample on strata (proportionate allocation)

Status
Sub-districtDCOTDVUVRCTotal
Bethlehem321823319113
Hebron774267248218
Jenin1735355614157
Jericho13..5422
Nablus78.404226186
Ramallah2334258515182
Tulkarem1829653614162
Total258158255279901,040

Selection of Sample PSUs (1st stage)
Sample PSUs were selected from each stratum with a probability proportionate to population size. In order to determine the 1st stage inclusion probability, we need the following variables (all referring to individuals, Benvenisti estimates):

	N(s,k)	=	Population total for PSU (s,k)
	N(s)	=	Population total s-th stratum (table A.6)
	N	=	Population total (West Bank)
The first stage inclusion probability for PSU (s,k) is approximately:

in which k(s)k(s) is the number of PSUs selected from the s-th stratum. In case k(s)=1, the equality above is exact. The approximation occurs for k(s)>1, as 2nd order (and higher) probabilities are assumed negligible. The number of PSUs to be selected, the k(s)'s, has been decided like this in order to avoid situations where the number of sample households of a PSU exceeds the total number of PSU households. Thus, for each stratum both the household sample size, the total number of PSUs and the size of the various PSUs have been considered.

In our design the household, not the single individual, is the ultimate unit of selection. If the average size of households is equal for all PSUs, which is a fairly realistic assumption, (3.1) can be expressed thus:

in which D(s,k) is the total number of households in PSU (s,k), and D(s) the corresponding total for the s-th stratum.

The number of sample PSUs selected from each of the strata are shown in table A.8. The total number of sample PSUs is 45.

Table A.8 Total (K(s)) and sample (k(s)) number of PSUs in the West Bank strata

Status
DCOTDVUVRC
Sub-districtK(s)k(s)K(s)k(s)K(s)k(s)K(s)k(s)K(s)k(s)
Bethlehem11215124231
Hebron113114347221
Jenin11419144321
Jericho11....9121
Nablus11..15134231
Ramallah116114169441
Tulkarem113128345221

Selection of Cells, Housing Units and Households
As in Gaza, there were no sampling frames available for the selection of households in the West Bank PSUs. Thus it was convenient to introduce two further sampling stages. At the 2nd stage sample PSUs were subdivided into cells, and samples of cells were selected by simple random sampling from the respective PSUs. Housing units were selected at the 3rd stage, and, finally, the samples of households (4th stage) were selected from the sample of housing units. The procedures operate exactly as for Gaza and are thus not repeated. However, the mathematics for sample allocation are not the same. This will be dealt with in the next section.

Inclusion Probabilities
Adopting the same notations as for the Gaza design, the overall inclusion probability for an arbitrary West Bank household (s,k,c,h,d) is:

In (3.3) it remains to determine the b(s,k)'s and the d(s,k,c)'s. For the same reasons as for Gaza, it is practically impossible to have an overall epsem design. For the purpose of allocating each stratum sample of households (or housing units) among PSUs, let us temporarily disregard the cell and housing unit stages of selection, assuming that households can be selected directly within PSUs. In this case the household inclusion probability can be written thus:

where d(s,k) is the household sample size of PSU (s,k). In order to have an epsem design, it is required that Q(s,k) be a constant, independent of which PSUs (k) are selected at the 1st stage. For this to be true it can be seen from (3.4) that the d(s,k)s have to be equal for all selected PSUs within the stratum, i.e. the stratum sample of households, denoted d(s), has to be equally divided among the sample PSUs:

Having thus determined the household sample allocation among PSUs within the strata, the next step is to allocate the various PSU subsamples among PSU cells. The housing unit selection stage is still disregarded. The (conditional) inclusion probability for an arbitrary household (s,k,c,d) within PSU (s,k) is:

In order to have a local (within PSU) epsem design, the R(s,k,c) must be a constant, i.e. independent of c. However, having two unspecified variables - b(s,k) and d(s,k,c) - and only one equation for determining them, we are free to specify any of them independently. To make a proper choice one should, however, appraise both cost and sampling error components. While budgetary constraints might suggest that the number of cells to be selected should be "small", considerations of sampling error induce no obvious choice. The sampling error can be split into two components reflecting within cell variations and variations between cells, respectively (variations refer to the survey variables). In general, preference should be given to the dominating component of variation. Thus, great between cell variations imply a large number of cells (and few households per cell) to be included, while great within cell variations suggest a smaller number of cells (and more households per cell).

As no prior information about the magnitude of the components of variation was available, further elaboration of sampling error considerations would obviously have been both speculative and questionable. We thus leave this discussion in order to address a more practical approach.
It was decided above that 45 PSUs be included in the 1st stage sample, implying on average approximately 23 households to be selected within each of the PSUs. To avoid concentration of all PSU interviews to one single area it was also decided to include at least 2 sample cells in every PSU. An average sample size per cell of 5-10 households was convenient for practical reasons as well. Thus the number of cells selected in each of the sample PSUs was for the majority of PSUs 2-5. There are, however, a few exceptions where only 1 or more than 5 cells were selected, depending on both the total number of cells and the household sample size for the PSU. In practice the b(s,k)s are roughly proportionate to the PSU total number of cells, B(s,k). The allocation of sample cells among PSUs is shown in table A.9.

Having thus decided the number of sample cells in each of the PSUs it remains to determine the allocation of the PSU household sample among cells. According to (3.6) this allocation obviously has to be proportionate in order to have a local (within PSU) epsem design. As stated previously, the latter requires R(s,k,c) to be a constant independent of the cell (c) under consideration. Thus, in R(s,k,c) we may omit the index c and reformulate (3.6):

In order to calculate R(s,k) for each of the sample PSUs we take the sum for every (s,k) of both sides of (3.7):

The left hand side adds to the PSU sample size, d(s)/k(s). On the right hand side all statistics are known except for the constant R(s,k). Hence R(s,k) is determined, and the individual d(s,k,c)s can be calculated from (3.7), concluding the sample allocation calculations. The d(s,k,c)s arrived at also determine the number of housing units selected from each cell.

The final household and cell sample allocation is displayed in table A.9 for the selected PSUs.

Before concluding this section, we return to the overall inclusion probability (3.3), to see how this can be calculated.

The first fraction on the right hand side is the 1st stage inclusion probability. At the planning stage the numbers of PSU and stratum households, the D(s,k)s and D(s)s, were not available. Instead, the Benvenisti estimates6 of the total population figures were used (equation (3.1)). The second fraction is the 2nd stage inclusion probability which can be calculated from the figures in table A.9. To calculate the third fraction, the d(s,k,c)s are taken from the finally observed (net) sample, and the H(s,k,c)s are estimated by formula (2.4) in the Gaza design section. The last fraction - the 4th stage inclusion probability - is determined by the sample observations of the D(s,k,c,h)s.

Table A.9 Total and sample number of cells, and household sample size in the West Bank sample PSUs

Number of cells
Stratum
District/
Status
PSU name (Locality)
(s,k)
Total
B(s,k)
Sample
b(s,k)
Household sample size
d(s,k)
Bethlehem
DCBethlehem42632
OT Beit Sahour22318
DVBeit Fajjar8323
UVArtas4416
Husan4215
RCEl Daheisha1329
Hebron
DC Hebron1071077
OTYatta21542
DVBeit Ummar7423
El Dhahiriya8622
Kharass+Nuba7+3 3+114+8
UVEl Rihiya2212
Sair8212
RCEl Fawar728
Jenin
DCJenin21317
OTYa'abad12535
DVJalame3335
UVA'qabe5318
Jaba'a6319
Kfar Dan4319
RCMukayam Fara'a8314
Jericho
DCJericho21313
UVNue'ima515
RCJericho RC614
Nablus
DCNablus1061078
DVA'sira Shimaliya8540
UVBeit Dajan5422
Salem3320
RCBalata RC19426
Ramallah
DCRamallah   
OTSilwad8534
DVSingel5525
UVA'nata6422
Deir Jerir4421
Kafr Malek4422
Qibya3320
RCAm'ari10315
Tulkarem
DCTulkarem43318
OTQalqilya37529
DVAllar6421
Habla5522
Kafr Qadum4422
UVDannabe5318
Shufa2218
RCNur el Shams5214

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al@mashriq                       960428/960710