This involvement is remarkable as it reveals the early support of the Bank for the use of representative probability sampling. Official sample surveys were still in their infancy: they had become accepted by statistical agencies in the United States only in the 1940s with the start of the Current Population Survey.
5 The Bank’s position is even more significant when seen against the background of an environment which was not necessarily favourable to this statistical tool. 6 The readiness to engage in these new statistical techniques is an example of the Bank’s attitude towards paying attention to and taking advantage of developments at the frontier of research.