Popul Stud (Camb). 1975 Mar;29(1):97-107. doi: 10.1080/00324728.1975.10410187.
Summary One of the truly significant contributions to practical demography is the procedure developed by William Brass for estimating life-table values from minimal data obtained in fertility surveys. Specifically, Brass designed a set of factors dependent on the shape of the fertility schedule, which convert proportions of children dead of women in standard age intervals into life table q(x)-values. Jeremiah Sullivan recently presented in this journal a method for simplifying the calculations involved in obtaining the multiplying factor in the Brass procedure. Both Brass and Sullivan employed restrictive fertility schedules to obtain their multiplying factors, and a rigorous test of either model has been hampered by the lack of numerous adequately recorded fertility schedules, especially those which begin early. Recently, a set of model fertility schedules which adequately duplicates empirical fertility schedules has been developed. These schedules were used to test the Brass and Sullivan procedures and to obtain new estimates of multiplying factors. Although the Brass and Sullivan procedures are shown to produce good estimators, new estimators, which prove superior to either, are developed and analysed.
威廉·布拉斯（William Brass）开发的从生育调查中获得的最小数据估计生命表值的程序，是实用人口学的真正重要贡献之一。具体来说，布拉斯设计了一组依赖生育计划形状的因素，这些因素将标准年龄间隔内死亡的儿童比例转换为生命表 q(x)-值。杰里米·沙利文（Jeremiah Sullivan）最近在本期刊上提出了一种简化 Brass 程序中乘法因子计算的方法。Brass 和 Sullivan 都使用限制性生育计划来获得他们的乘法因子，由于缺乏大量记录良好的生育计划，特别是那些早期开始的生育计划，对这两种模型的严格测试受到了阻碍。最近，开发了一组模型生育计划，这些计划可以充分复制经验生育计划。这些计划用于测试 Brass 和 Sullivan 程序，并获得新的乘法因子估计值。虽然 Brass 和 Sullivan 程序被证明是很好的估计器，但开发并分析了新的估计器，这些估计器优于任何一个。
