UNA PROPOSTA DI STIMA DELLA NUMEROSITA’ NEL CAMPIONAMENTO PER CENTRI

The aim of the paper is to give an estimate of the population size when neither a complete list nor some incomplete lists are available and the population is partially undetectable. In such a framework the center sampling technique proves an essential tool. A first estimate relies on the likelihood approach assuming the complete detectability of the units. Then, this unrealistic hypothesis is removed introducing a prior distribution on detectability, so that a second estimate is given resorting to integrated likelihood. Finally, the previous estimates are compared through a simulation study.