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On snowball sampling, random mappings and related problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

Sven Berg
Sven Berg*
Affiliation:
University of Lund
*
∗Postal address: Department of Statistics, University of Lund, Box 7008, S-220 07, Lund, Sweden.
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Abstract

If a rumour is spread in a population through random contacts between its members, to how many people, on average, will the rumour be told? What can be said about the variations in the number of people who have heard the rumour? Does it matter very much whether a single person or a group of persons starts spreading the rumour? Questions such as these are discussed below, using the framework of a simple stochastic model for snowball sampling.

Keywords

MARKOV CHAINCHAIN BINOMIAL EPIDEMIC MODELREED–FROST MODELPOPULATION SIZE ESTIMATORSMODIFIED STIRLING NUMBERS OF THE SECOND KINDGENERALIZED GAMMA DISTRIBUTION
Type
Short Communications
Information
Journal of Applied Probability , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , March 1981 , pp. 283 - 290
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 

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