Modified exponential family for improved Searls estimation of finite population mean

This paper proposes a modified exponential ratio type (Searls, 1964) class of estimators for the estimation of population mean under simple random sampling scheme. The suggested estimator utilises the known information on highly correlated auxiliary attribute. The theoretical derivations for the bias and mean squared error for the proposed estimator are retained up to the approximation of order one and the performance properties of the estimator are compared with the well-established ratio, product, modified ratio and modified product estimators of the mean of the population for the characteristic under study. The efficiency conditions of the suggested estimator over these estimators are also obtained and the theoretical findings are verified using the empirical datasets. The efficiencies of the estimators are judged on the basis of the mean squared errors of the sampling distributions around the true population mean of the study variable.