On reuse of clusters in repeated studies

Suppose data for a survey with multi-stage design is to be collected in two periods of time. This paper assesses the relative merits of keeping the same clusters in the sample vs. sampling new clusters, under dierent statistical (correlation between clusters and over time) and logistical (costs of survey) scenarios. The design eect of re-using the same clusters from the master sample over time is of the form 1 A/n where is intertemporal correlation of the cluster totals, n is the number of clusters, is the proportion of clusters retained from the previous round, and A > 0 is a fixed constant. As long as the eciency gains appear to be minor, the value of the designs that reuse the…