General framework for the rotation of units in repeated survey sampling

Coordination of probabilistic samples is a challenging theoretical problem faced by statistical institutes. One of their aims is to obtain good estimates for each wave while spreading the response burden across the entire population. There is a collection of existing solutions that try to attend to these needs. These solutions, which were developed independently, are integrated in a general framework and their corresponding longitudinal designs are computed. The properties of these longitudinal designs are discussed. It is also noted that there is an antagonism between a good rotation and control over the cross-sectional sampling design. A compromise needs to be reached between the quality of the sample coordination, which appears to be optimal for a systematic longitudinal sampling design, and the freedom of choice of the cross-sectional design. In order to reach such a compromise, an algorithm that uses a new method of longitudinal sampling is proposed.