统计学手册，主编为 C.R. Rao

The handbook consists of 41 chapters with a good balance between theory and practice and many illustrations of real applications. The chapters are grouped into two volumes. Volume 29A entitled “Design, Methods and Applications” contains 22 chapters. Volume 29B entitled “Inference and Analysis” contains the remaining 19 chapters. The chapters in each volume are further divided into three parts, with each part preceded by a short introduction summarizing the motivation and main developments in the topics covered in that part.
The present volume 29B is concerned with inference and analysis, distinguishing between methods based on probability sampling principles (“design-based” methods), and methods based on statistical models (“model-based” methods). Part 4 (the first part of this volume) discusses alternative approaches to inference from survey data, with chapters on model-based prediction of finite population totals, design-based and model- based inference on population model parameters and the use of estimating functions and calibration for estimation of population parameters. Other approaches considered in this part include the use of nonparametric and semi-parametric models, the use of Bayesian methods, resampling methods for variance estimation, and the use of empirical likelihood and pseudo empirical likelihood methods. While the chapters in Part 4 deal with general approaches, Part 5 considers specific estimation and inference problems. These include design-based and model-based methods for small area estimation, design and inference over time and the analysis of longitudinal studies, categorical data analysis and inference on distribution functions. The last chapter in this part discusses and illustrates the use of scatterplots with survey data. Part 6 in Volume 29B is devoted to inference under informative sampling and to theoretical aspects of sample survey inference. The first chapter considers case-control studies which are in common use for health and pol- icy evaluation research, while the second chapter reviews several plausible approaches for fitting models to complex survey data under informative sampling designs. The other two chapters consider asymptotics in finite population sampling and decision-theoretic aspects of sampling, bringing sample survey inference closer to general statistical theory.