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I'm trying to figure out the origin of the finite population correction (FPC) factor. That is, who developed it as a concept and theory, and when was it first documented.

I realize this is a tricky question. The history of certain basic ideas in statistics is quite complicated (see Adam's book on the CLT). I think the FPC might have come out of ideas in sampling theory from Jerzy Neyman in the 1930s such as:

(i) Neyman J. On the two different aspects of the representative method: The method of stratified sampling and the method of purposive selection . Journal of the Royal Statistical Society vol. 97 (1934) pp. 558–606.

(ii) Neyman J. Contribution to the theory of sampling human populations . Journal of the American Statistical Association vol. 33 (1938) pp. 101–116.

But I'm not sure, so any and all pointers would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks.

fpc_who
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  • After a more careful read, the answer might be in the first reference (Neyman, 1934). See equation (28) in Note II on page 597. But I'm still not sure the FPC originates elsewhere since the concept is fairly basic. – fpc_who May 06 '14 at 18:10
  • I suspect it arose earlier as it's simply the derivation of the variance of the sample mean. In 1923, Neyman is already deriving a much more complicated variance--that includes a fpc. See DOI: 10.1214/ss/1177012031 for a translation. – num_39 Feb 07 '23 at 20:48

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