Sampling Problems in the Estimation of the Money Supply

In this article, the selection and testing of a sample of member banks of the Federal Reserve System are described. The objectives are timely and accurate estimation of monetary aggregates for the population of member banks. This sampling problem is unusual for two reasons: the need to produce regular weekly estimates on an accelerated time schedule, and the extensive historical data available. These past data afford an opportunity to improve the precision of estimation and to test the efficacy of alternative estimators.