| Abstract: | In adaptive estimation, it is often considered that an estimator has made a mistake if the component estimator chosen for use is not the most efficient for the distribution sampled. Theoretical and simulation results point to a fallacy in this line of thought. The Monte Carlo study involves extension of the Princeton Swindle to distributions conditional on a location and scale-free statistic, and to the uniform. The results give a partial explanation for the sometimes surprising robustness of adaptive L-estimators. |
