Linearly admissible estimators of mean vector with respect to balanced loss function in multivariate statistics

The authors discuss the bias of the estimate of the variance of the overall effect synthesized from individual studies by using the variance weighted method. This bias is proven to be negative. Furthermore, the conditions, the likelihood of underestimation and the bias from this conventional estimate are studied based on the assumption that the estimates of the effect are subject to normal distribution with common mean. The likelihood of underestimation is very high (e.g. it is greater than 85% when the sample sizes in two combined studies are less than 120). The alternative less biased estimates for the cases with and without the homogeneity of the variances are given in order to adjust for the sample size and the variation of the population variance. In addition, the sample size weight method is suggested if the consistence of the sample variances is violated Finally, a real example is presented to show the difference by using the above three estimate methods.     

Linearly admissible estimators of stochastic regression coefficient under balanced loss function

The admissibility of linear estimators in a linear model with stochastic regression coefficient is investigated under a balanced loss function. The sufficient and necessary conditions for linear estimators to be admissible in classes of homogeneous and non-homogeneous linear estimators are obtained, respectively.     

Linearly admissible estimators on linear functions of regression coefficient under balanced loss function

Linearly admissible estimators on linear functions of regression coefficient are studied in a singular linear model and balanced loss when the design matrix has not full column rank. The sufficient and necessary conditions for linear estimators to be admissible are obtained respectively in homogeneous and inhomogeneous classes.     

Estimation of the exponential mean time to failure under a weighted balanced loss function

This paper considers estimation of a exponential mean time to failure using a loss function that reflects both goodness of fit and precision of estimation. The admissibility and inadmissibility of a class of linear estimators of the form are studied.     

Estimation of a normal mean relative to balanced loss functions

LetX ₁,…,X _nbe a random sample from a normal distribution with mean θ and variance σ². The problem is to estimate θ with Zellner's (1994) balanced loss function, % MathType!End!2!1!, where 0<ω<1. It is shown that the sample mean % MathType!End!2!1!, is admissible. More generally, we investigate the admissibility of estimators of the form % MathType!End!2!1! under % MathType!End!2!1!. We also consider the weighted balanced loss function, % MathType!End!2!1!, whereq(θ) is any positive function of θ, and the class of admissible linear estimators is obtained under such loss withq(θ) =e ^θ .     

Admissibility for linear estimators of regression coefficient in a general Gauss–Markoff model under balanced loss function

A generalization of Zellner's balanced loss function is proposed according to unified theory of least squares under a general Gauss–Markoff model. Admissibility of linear estimators is investigated under the balanced loss function. And necessary and sufficient conditions that linear estimators are admissible in a class of homogeneous and nonhomogeneous linear estimators are obtained, respectively.     

Simultaneous estimation of the multivariate normal mean under balanced loss function

This paper considers simultaneous estimation of multivariate normal mean vector using Zellner's(1994) balanced loss function which is defined as follows:

where 0 < w < 1 and for i = 1,…,p and j = 1,…,n, X_ij is distributed as normal with mean θi and variance 1. It is shown that the sample mean, X, is admissible when p <3. For p ≥3, we obtain that James-Stein type estimator which has uniformly smaller risk than that of sample mean X.     

On the cohen-sackrowitz estimator of a common mean

The paper reconsider certain estimators proposed by COHENand SACKROWITZ[Ann.Statist.(1974)2,1274-1282,Ann.Statist.4,1294]for the common mean of two normal distributions on the basis of independent samples of equal size from the two populations. It derives the ncecessary and sufficient condition for improvement over the first sample mean, under squared error loss, for any member of a class containing these. It shows that the estimator proposded by them for simultaneous improvement over botyh sample means has the desired property if and only if the common size of the samples is at least nine. The requirement is milder than that for any other estimator at the present state of knolwledge and may be constrasted with their result which implies the desired property of the estimator only if the common size of the samples is at least fifteen. Upper bounds for variances if the estimators derived by them are also improved     

Limiting admissible estimators for variance components

Simultaneous estimation of the vector of the variance components for mixed and random models under the quadratic loss function is considered. For a large class of such models there are identified classes of admissible biased invariant quadratic estimators that are better than some admissible unbiased estimators. Numerous numerical results presented in the paper show that for many of the commonly used balanced models the improvements in the quadratic risk may be considerable over a large set of the parameter space.     

Testing hypotheses about the common mean of normal distributions

An overview of hypothesis testing for the common mean of independent normal distributions is given. The case of two populations is studied in detail. A number of different types of tests are studied. Among them are a test based on the maximum of the two available t-tests, Fisher's combined test, a test based on Graybill–Deal's estimator, an approximation to the likelihood ratio test, and some tests derived using some Bayesian considerations for improper priors along with intuitive considerations. Based on some theoretical findings and mostly based on a Monte Carlo study the conclusions are that for the most part the Bayes-intuitive type tests are superior and can be recommended. When the variances of the populations are close the approximate likelihood ratio test does best.     

On the admissibility of ordered poisson parameter under the entropy loss function

Let X ₁, X ₂be two independent Poisson random variables with means θ ₁and θ ₂respectively. Assume 0 ≤ θ ₁ ≤ θ ₂ ≤ ∞. The problem is estimation of the ordered parameters which has received considerable attention in statistical literature during the last two decades, In this paper the main portion of the study is devoted to the problem of estimating the smallest of the two ordered Poisson means, when it is known which population corresponds to each mean under the entropy loss function. An extension of the problem to the k-ordered Poisson means is also discussed.     

New biased estimators under the LINEX loss function

In this paper, using the asymmetric LINEX loss function we derive the risk function of the generalized Liu estimator and almost unbiased generalized Liu estimator. We also examine the risk performance of the feasible generalized Liu estimator and feasible almost unbiased generalized Liu estimator when the LINEX loss function is used.     

The empirical Bayes estimators of the parameter of the Poisson distribution with a conjugate gamma prior under Stein's loss function

For the hierarchical Poisson and gamma model, we calculate the Bayes posterior estimator of the parameter of the Poisson distribution under Stein's loss function which penalizes gross overestimation and gross underestimation equally and the corresponding Posterior Expected Stein's Loss (PESL). We also obtain the Bayes posterior estimator of the parameter under the squared error loss and the corresponding PESL. Moreover, we obtain the empirical Bayes estimators of the parameter of the Poisson distribution with a conjugate gamma prior by two methods. In numerical simulations, we have illustrated: The two inequalities of the Bayes posterior estimators and the PESLs; the moment estimators and the Maximum Likelihood Estimators (MLEs) are consistent estimators of the hyperparameters; the goodness-of-fit of the model to the simulated data. The numerical results indicate that the MLEs are better than the moment estimators when estimating the hyperparameters. Finally, we exploit the attendance data on 314 high school juniors from two urban high schools to illustrate our theoretical studies.     

Comparison of estimators of the location parameter using pitman's closeness criterion

Necessary and sufficient conditions for a linear estimator to dominate another linear estimator of a location parameter under the Pitman's criterion of comparison are discussed. Consequently it is demonstrated that a linear biased estimator can not dominate a linear unbiased estimator under Pitman's criterion and that the sample mean is the Closest Linear Unbiased Estimator (CLUE). It is also shown that the ridge regression estimator with a known biasing constant can not dominate the ordinary least squares estimator. If an estimator δdominates an estimator δin the average loss sense then sufficient conditions are obtained under which δis also preferred over δunder Pitman's criterion. Further we obtain sufficient conditions under which preference under the Pitman's criterion will lead to preference under the mean squared error sense.     

Estimating the parameter of selected uniform population under the squared log error loss function

Let π₁, …, π_k be k (? 2) independent populations, where π_i denotes the uniform distribution over the interval (0, θ_i) and θ_i > 0 (i = 1, …, k) is an unknown scale parameter. The population associated with the largest scale parameter is called the best population. For selecting the best population, We use a selection rule based on the natural estimators of θ_i, i = 1, …, k, for the case of unequal sample sizes. Consider the problem of estimating the scale parameter θ_L of the selected uniform population when sample sizes are unequal and the loss is measured by the squared log error (SLE) loss function. We derive the uniformly minimum risk unbiased (UMRU) estimator of θ_L under the SLE loss function and two natural estimators of θ_L are also studied. For k = 2, we derive a sufficient condition for inadmissibility of an estimator of θ_L. Using these condition, we conclude that the UMRU estimator and natural estimator are inadmissible. Finally, the risk functions of various competing estimators of θ_L are compared through simulation.     

The performance of the adaptive optimal estimator under the extended balanced loss function

The adaptive optimal estimator of Farebrother (1975) is discussed by many authors, but the goodness of fitted model criterion that is used to investigate the performance of estimators is quite often ignored. Shalabh, Toutenburg, and Heumann (2009) proposed the extended balanced loss function in which the mean squared error and the Zellner's balanced loss function are just special cases of it. In this paper, we discuss the performance of the adaptive optimal estimator of Farebrother (1975) under the extended balanced loss function. Moreover, a Monte Carlo simulation experiment is conducted to examine the performance of the estimator in finite samples.     

Estimating quantiles of several normal populations with a common mean

Suppose we have k( ? 2) normal populations with a common mean and possibly different variances. The problem of estimation of quantile of the first population is considered with respect to a quadratic loss function. In this paper, we have generalized the inadmissibility results obtained by Kumar and Tripathy (2011 Kumar, S., Tripathy, M.R. (2011). Estimating quantiles of normal populations with a common mean. Commun. Stat. - Theory Methods 40:2719–2736.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) for k = 2 to a general k( ? 2). Moreover, a massive simulation study has been done in order to numerically compare the risk values of various proposed estimators for the cases k = 3 and k = 4 and recommendations are made for the use of estimators under certain situations.     

Proper Bayes minimax estimators of the normal mean matrix with common unknown variances

This paper addresses the problem of estimating a matrix of the normal means, where the variances are unknown but common. The approach to this problem is provided by a hierarchical Bayes modeling for which the first stage prior for the means is matrix-variate normal distribution with mean zero matrix and a covariance structure and the second stage prior for the covariance is similar to Jeffreys’ rule. The resulting hierarchical Bayes estimators relative to the quadratic loss function belong to a class of matricial shrinkage estimators. Certain conditions are obtained for admissibility and minimaxity of the hierarchical Bayes estimators.