On the estimation of the marginal density of a moving average process

The authors present a new convolution‐type kernel estimator of the marginal density of an MA(1) process with general error distribution. They prove the √n; ‐consistency of the nonparametric estimator and give asymptotic expressions for the mean square and the integrated mean square error of some unobservable version of the estimator. An extension to MA(q) processes is presented in the case of the mean integrated square error. Finally, a simulation study shows the good practical behaviour of the estimator and the strong connection between the estimator and its unobservable version in terms of the choice of the bandwidth.     

Exact small sample properties of an operational variant of the minimum mean squared error estimator

In this paper, we show a sufficient condition for an operational variant of the minimum mean squared error estimator (simply, the minimum MSE estimator) to dominate the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimator. It is also shown numerically that the minimum MSE estimator dominates the OLS estimator if the number of regression coefficients is larger than or equal to three, even if the sufficient condition is not satisfied. When the number of regression coefficients is smaller than three, our numerical results show that the gain in MSE of using the minimum MSE estimator is larger than the loss.     

Nonparametric kernel density estimation for general grouped data

Interval-grouped data are defined, in general, when the event of interest cannot be directly observed and it is only known to have been occurred within an interval. In this framework, a nonparametric kernel density estimator is proposed and studied. The approach is based on the classical Parzen–Rosenblatt estimator and on the generalisation of the binned kernel density estimator. The asymptotic bias and variance of the proposed estimator are derived under usual assumptions, and the effect of using non-equally spaced grouped data is analysed. Additionally, a plug-in bandwidth selector is proposed. Through a comprehensive simulation study, the behaviour of both the estimator and the plug-in bandwidth selector considering different scenarios of data grouping is shown. An application to real data confirms the simulation results, revealing the good performance of the estimator whenever data are not heavily grouped.     

On huntseerger type shrinkage estimator

This paper is concerned with Hintsberger type weighted shrinkage estimator of a parameter when a target value of the same is available. Expressions for the bias and the mean squared error of the estimator are derived. Some results concerning the bias, existence of uniformly minimum mean squared error estimator etc. are proved. For certain c to ices of the weight function, numerical results are presented for the pretest type weighted shrinkage estimator of the mean of normal as well as exponential distributions.     

MSE performance of the weighted average estimators consisting of shrinkage estimators when each individual regression coefficient is estimated

In this paper, we analytically derive the exact formula for the mean squared error (MSE) of two weighted average (WA) estimators for each individual regression coefficient. Further, we execute numerical evaluations to investigate small sample properties of the WA estimators, and compare the MSE performance of the WA estimators with the other shrinkage estimators and the usual OLS estimator. Our numerical results show that (1) the WA estimators have smaller MSE than the other shrinkage estimators and the OLS estimator over a wide region of parameter space; (2) the range where the relative MSE of the WA estimator is smaller than that of the OLS estimator gets narrower as the number of explanatory variables k increases.     

A pseudo‐empirical best linear unbiased prediction approach to small area estimation using survey weights

The authors develop a small area estimation method using a nested error linear regression model and survey weights. In particular, they propose a pseudo‐empirical best linear unbiased prediction (pseudo‐EBLUP) estimator to estimate small area means. This estimator borrows strength across areas through the model and makes use of the survey weights to preserve the design consistency as the area sample size increases. The proposed estimator also has a nice self‐benchmarking property. The authors also obtain an approximation to the model mean squared error (MSE) of the proposed estimator and a nearly unbiased estimator of MSE. Finally, they compare the proposed estimator with the EBLUP estimator and the pseudo‐EBLUP estimator proposed by Prasad & Rao (1999), using data analyzed earlier by Battese, Harter & Fuller (1988).     

Performance of some new Liu parameters for the linear regression model

Abstract

This article introduces some Liu parameters in the linear regression model based on the work of Shukur, Månsson, and Sjölander. These methods of estimating the Liu parameter d increase the efficiency of Liu estimator. The comparison of proposed Liu parameters and available methods has done using Monte Carlo simulation and a real data set where the mean squared error, mean absolute error and interval estimation are considered as performance criterions. The simulation study shows that under certain conditions the proposed Liu parameters perform quite well as compared to the ordinary least squares estimator and other existing Liu parameters.     

Efficiency of an adaptive estimator of a log-zero-poisson parameter

An estimator, λ is proposed for the parameter λ of the log-zero-Poisson distribution. While it is not a consistent estimator of λ in the usual statistical sense, it is shown to be quite close to the maximum likelihood estimates for many of the 35 sets of data on which it is tried. Since obtaining maximum likelihood estimates is extremely difficult for this and other contagious distributions, this estimate will act at least as an initial estimate in solving the likelihood equations iteratively. A lesson learned from this experience is that in the area of contagious distributions, variability is so large that attention should be focused directly on the mean squared error and not on consistency or unbiasedness, whether for small samples or for the asymptotic case. Sample sizes for some of the data considered in the paper are in hundreds. The fact that the estimator which is not a consistent estimator of λ is closer to the maximum likeli-hood estimator than the consistent moment estimator shows that the variability is large enough to not permit consistency to materialize even for such large sample sizes usually available in actual practice.     

A new nonparametric estimator for the mean of the selected population

A modified bootstrap estimator of the mean of the population selected from two populations is proposed which is a convex combination of the two sample means, where the weights are random quantities. The estimator is shown to be strongly consistent. The small sample behavior of the estimator is investigated and compared with some competitors by means of Monte Carlo studies. It is found that the newly proposed estimator has smaller mean squared error for a wide range of parameter values.     

Ridge estimation in logistic regression

The variance of the Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE) of the slope parameter in a logistic regression model becomes large as the degree of collinearity among the explanatory variables increases. In a Monte Carlo study, we observed that a ridge type estimator is at least as good as, and often much better than, the MLE in terms of Total and Prediction Mean Squared Error criteria. Using a set of medical data it is illustrated that the ridge trace of the estimator considered here is a useful diagnostic tool in logistic regression analysis.     

A relationship between generalized and integrated mean square errors

Generalised Mean squared error is a flexible measure of the adequancy of ? repression estimator. It allows specific characteristics of the regression model and its intended use to be In-corportated in the measure itself. Similarly, integrated mean squared error enables a researcher to stipulate particular regions of interest and wi ighting functions in the assessment of a prediction equation. The appeal of both measures is their ability to allow design or model characteristics to directly influence the evaluation of fitted regression models. In this note an e-quivalence of the two measures is established for correctly specified models.     

FOURIER SERIES ESTIMATION FOR LENGTH BIASED DATA

This paper proposes and investigates Fourier series estimators for length biased data. Specifically, two Fourier series estimators are constructed and studied based on ideas of Jones (1991) and Bhattacharyya et al. (1988) in the case of kernel density estimation. Approximate expressions for mean squared errors and integrated mean squared errors are obtained and compared, and some simulated examples are investigated. The Fourier series estimator based on the proposal of Jones seems to have the more desirable properties of the two. The paper concludes with some comments that put this work in a wider context.     

Issues for stratified randomization based on a factor derived from a continuous baseline variable

Stratified randomization based on the baseline value of the primary analysis variable is common in clinical trial design. We illustrate from a theoretical viewpoint the advantage of such a stratified randomization to achieve balance of the baseline covariate. We also conclude that the estimator for the treatment effect is consistent when including both the continuous baseline covariate and the stratification factor derived from the baseline covariate. In addition, the analysis of covariance model including both the continuous covariate and the stratification factor is asymptotically no less efficient than including either only the continuous baseline value or only the stratification factor. We recommend that the continuous baseline covariate should generally be included in the analysis model. The corresponding stratification factor may also be included in the analysis model if one is not confident that the relationship between the baseline covariate and the response variable is linear. In spite of the above recommendation, one should always carefully examine relevant historical data to pre-specify the most appropriate analysis model for a perspective study.     

ROBUST RIDGE REGRESSION BASED ON AN M-ESTIMATOR

Consider the linear regression model y =β₀1 +Xβ+ in the usual notation. It is argued that the class of ordinary ridge estimators obtained by shrinking the least squares estimator by the matrix (X¹X + kI)^-1X'X is sensitive to outliers in the ^variable. To overcome this problem, we propose a new class of ridge-type M-estimators, obtained by shrinking an M-estimator (instead of the least squares estimator) by the same matrix. Since the optimal value of the ridge parameter k is unknown, we suggest a procedure for choosing it adaptively. In a reasonably large scale simulation study with a particular M-estimator, we found that if the conditions are such that the M-estimator is more efficient than the least squares estimator then the corresponding ridge-type M-estimator proposed here is better, in terms of a Mean Squared Error criteria, than the ordinary ridge estimator with k chosen suitably. An example illustrates that the estimators proposed here are less sensitive to outliers in the y-variable than ordinary ridge estimators.     

A modified estimator of population mean using power transformation

Summary In this paper we have suggested two modified estimators of population mean using power transformation. It has been shown that the modified estimators are more efficient than the sample mean estimator, usual ratio estimator, Sisodia and Dwivedi’s (1981) estimator and Upadhyaya and Singh’s (1999) estimator at their optimum conditions. Empirical illustrations are also given for examining the merits of the proposed estimators. Following Kadilar and Cingi (2003) the work has been extended to stratified random sampling, and the same data set has been studied to examine the performance in stratified random sampling.     

Developing a restricted two-parameter Liu-type estimator: A comparison of restricted estimators in the binary logistic regression model

In the context of estimating regression coefficients of an ill-conditioned binary logistic regression model, we develop a new biased estimator having two parameters for estimating the regression vector parameter β when it is subjected to lie in the linear subspace restriction Hβ = h. The matrix mean squared error and mean squared error (MSE) functions of these newly defined estimators are derived. Moreover, a method to choose the two parameters is proposed. Then, the performance of the proposed estimator is compared to that of the restricted maximum likelihood estimator and some other existing estimators in the sense of MSE via a Monte Carlo simulation study. According to the simulation results, the performance of the estimators depends on the sample size, number of explanatory variables, and degree of correlation. The superiority region of our proposed estimator is identified based on the biasing parameters, numerically. It is concluded that the new estimator is superior to the others in most of the situations considered and it is recommended to the researchers.     

Exactly optimal sampling designs for processes with a product covariance structure

The author considers the problem of finding exactly optimal sampling designs for estimating a second‐order, centered random process on the basis of finitely many observations. The value of the process at an unsampled point is estimated by the best linear unbiased estimator. A weighted integrated mean squared error or the maximum mean squared error is used to measure the performance of the estimator. The author presents a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for a design to be exactly optimal for processes with a product covariance structure. Expansions of these conditions lead to conditions for asymptotic optimality.     

On a class of shrinkage estimators of vector of regression coefficients the

This paper studies a class of shrinkage estimators of the vector of regression coefficients. The small disturbance approximations for the bias and the mean squared error matrix of the estimator are derived. In the sense of mean squared error, these estimators dominate the least squares estimator and the generalized Stein estimator developed by Hosmane (1988).     

An effective approach to linear calibration estimation with its applications

Abstract

The availability of some extra information, along with the actual variable of interest, may be easily accessible in different practical situations. A sensible use of the additional source may help to improve the properties of statistical techniques. In this study, we focus on the estimators for calibration and intend to propose a setup where we reply only on first two moments instead of modeling the whole distributional shape. We have proposed an estimator for linear calibration problems and investigated it under normal and skewed environments. We have partitioned its mean squared error into intrinsic and estimation components. We have observed that the bias and mean squared error of the proposed estimator are function of four dimensionless quantities. It is to be noticed that both the classical and the inverse estimators become the special cases of the proposed estimator. Moreover, the mean squared error of the proposed estimator and the exact mean squared error of the inverse estimator coincide. We have also observed that the proposed estimator performs quite well for skewed errors as well. The real data applications are also included in the study for practical considerations.     

Estimating Damages in a Class Action Litigation

In a class action litigation, actual damages are not known exactly and must be estimated. Various estimators are proposed and assessed by using a model that identifies possible sources of error. Estimators that have been used in practice are shown to be seriously biased. An empirical Bayes estimator and an empirical minimal mean squared error estimator are found to be more satisfactory methods for estimating damages.