Comparison of efficiencies of some symmetry tests around an unknown centre

In this paper, some recent and classical tests of symmetry are modified for the case of an unknown centre. The unknown centre is estimated with its α-trimmed mean estimator. The asymptotic behaviour of the new tests is explored. The local approximate Bahadur efficiency is used to compare the tests to each other as well as to some other tests.     

SB-Robust Estimators of the Parameters of the Wrapped Normal Distribution

In this article, we study the SB-robustness of various estimators of the mean direction (μ) and the concentration parameter (ρ) of the wrapped normal distribution. The functional corresponding to the sample mean direction is seen to be not SB-robust as an estimator of μ at the family of wrapped normal distributions with varying ρ, whereas the γ-trimmed mean direction is SB-robust at the same family of distributions for the different dispersion measures considered in this article. We also study the SB-robustness of the moment estimator of ρ and also that for a newly introduced trimmed estimator of ρ.     

Comparison of estimation methods for the finite population mean in simple random sampling: symmetric super-populations

In this paper, a new estimator combined estimator (CE) is proposed for estimating the finite population mean ¯ Y _N in simple random sampling assuming a long-tailed symmetric super-population model. The efficiency and robustness properties of the CE is compared with the widely used and well-known estimators of the finite population mean ¯ Y _N by Monte Carlo simulation. The parameter estimators considered in this study are the classical least squares estimator, trimmed mean, winsorized mean, trimmed L-mean, modified maximum-likelihood estimator, Huber estimator (W24) and the non-parametric Hodges–Lehmann estimator. The mean square error criteria are used to compare the performance of the estimators. We show that the CE is overall more efficient than the other estimators. The CE is also shown to be more robust for estimating the finite population mean ¯ Y _N , since it is insensitive to outliers and to misspecification of the distribution. We give a real life example.     

Root-n-consistent Estimation in Partial Linear Models with Long-memory Errors

We consider estimation of β in the semiparametric regression model y ( i ) - x ^T( i )β + f ( i / n ) + ε( i ) where x ( i ) = g ( i )/ n ) + e ( i , f and g are unknown smooth functions and the processes ε( i ) and e ( i ) are stationary with short- or long-range dependence. For the case of i.i.d. errors, Speckman (1988) proposed a √ n –consistent estimator of β. In this paper it is shown that, under suitable regularity conditions, this estimator is asymptotically unbiased and √ n –consistent even if the errors exhibit long-range dependence. The orders of the finite sample bias and of the required bandwidth depend on the long-memory parameters. Simulations and a data example illustrate the method     

Consistency of the Semi-parametric MLE in Linear Regression Models with Interval-censored Data

Abstract.  Consider the model Y = β ^' X + ε . Let F ₀ be the unknown cumulative distribution function of the random variable ε . Consistency of the semi-parametric Maximum likelihood estimator of ( β , F ₀), denoted by     , has not been established under any interval censorship (IC) model. We prove in this paper that     is consistent under the mixed case IC model and some mild assumptions.     

Investigation of the performance of trimmed estimators of life time distributions with censoring

For the lifetime (or negative) exponential distribution, the trimmed likelihood estimator has been shown to be explicit in the form of a β‐trimmed mean which is representable as an estimating functional that is both weakly continuous and Fréchet differentiable and hence qualitatively robust at the parametric model. It also has high efficiency at the model. The robustness is in contrast to the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) involving the usual mean which is not robust to contamination in the upper tail of the distribution. When there is known right censoring, it may be perceived that the MLE which is the most asymptotically efficient estimator may be protected from the effects of ‘outliers’ due to censoring. We demonstrate that this is not the case generally, and in fact, based on the functional form of the estimators, suggest a hybrid defined estimator that incorporates the best features of both the MLE and the β‐trimmed mean. Additionally, we study the pure trimmed likelihood estimator for censored data and show that it can be easily calculated and that the censored observations are not always trimmed. The different trimmed estimators are compared by a modest simulation study.     

A bias-reduced estimator for the mean of a heavy-tailed distribution with an infinite second moment

We use bias-reduced estimators of high quantiles of heavy-tailed distributions, to introduce a new estimator for the mean in the case of infinite second moment. The asymptotic normality of the proposed estimator is established and checked in a simulation study, by four of the most popular goodness-of-fit tests. The accuracy of the resulting confidence intervals is evaluated as well. We also investigate the finite sample behavior and compare our estimator with some versions of Peng's estimator of the mean (namely those based on Hill, t-Hill and Huisman et al. extreme value index estimators). Moreover, we discuss the robustness of the tail index estimators used in this paper. Finally, our estimation procedure is applied to the well-known Danish fire insurance claims data set, to provide confidence bounds for the means of weekly and monthly maximum losses over a period of 10 years.     

Variance estimation when donor imputation is used to fill in missing values

Donor imputation is frequently used in surveys. However, very few variance estimation methods that take into account donor imputation have been developed in the literature. This is particularly true for surveys with high sampling fractions using nearest donor imputation, often called nearest‐neighbour imputation. In this paper, the authors develop a variance estimator for donor imputation based on the assumption that the imputed estimator of a domain total is approximately unbiased under an imputation model; that is, a model for the variable requiring imputation. Their variance estimator is valid, irrespective of the magnitude of the sampling fractions and the complexity of the donor imputation method, provided that the imputation model mean and variance are accurately estimated. They evaluate its performance in a simulation study and show that nonparametric estimation of the model mean and variance via smoothing splines brings robustness with respect to imputation model misspecifications. They also apply their variance estimator to real survey data when nearest‐neighbour imputation has been used to fill in the missing values. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 37: 400–416; 2009 © 2009 Statistical Society of Canada     

Robust Estimation of Multivariate Linear Model Based on Depth Weighted Mean and Scatter

Based on the projection depth weighted mean and scatter estimation of the joint distribution of (x, y), we introduce a robust estimator of the regression coefficients for the multivariate linear model. The new estimator possesses desirable properties including affine invariance, Fisher consistency, and asymptotic normality. Also, we study the robustness of the estimator in terms of breakdown point and influence function. Extensive simulation studies are performed to investigate the finite sample behavior of robustness and efficiency. The methodology is illustrated with a real data example.     

Trimmed Mean Isotonic Regression

The trimmed mean is well‐known in literature for being more robust and for having better efficiency than the sample mean when data is generated from heavy‐tailed distributions. In this article, the trimmed mean in the isotonic regression setup is proposed, and the asymptotic as well as the robustness properties of the estimator are studied. The usefulness of the proposed estimator is illustrated using different real and simulated data. Further, the performance of the estimator is compared with that of the mean and the median isotonic regression estimators.     

On minimum Hellinger distance estimation

Efficiency and robustness are two fundamental concepts in parametric estimation problems. It was long thought that there was an inherent contradiction between the aims of achieving robustness and efficiency; that is, a robust estimator could not be efficient and vice versa. It is now known that the minimum Hellinger distance approached introduced by Beran [R. Beran, Annals of Statistics 1977;5:445–463] is one way of reconciling the conflicting concepts of efficiency and robustness. For parametric models, it has been shown that minimum Hellinger estimators achieve efficiency at the model density and simultaneously have excellent robustness properties. In this article, we examine the application of this approach in two semiparametric models. In particular, we consider a two‐component mixture model and a two‐sample semiparametric model. In each case, we investigate minimum Hellinger distance estimators of finite‐dimensional Euclidean parameters of particular interest and study their basic asymptotic properties. Small sample properties of the proposed estimators are examined using a Monte Carlo study. The results can be extended to semiparametric models of general form as well. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 37: 514–533; 2009 © 2009 Statistical Society of Canada     

Monotony relations between distribution functions and their application to experimental design

In a linear regression model an estimator of the unknown coefficients is considered which, in special cases, includes the least squares estimator. In the ease of stable symmetric error distribution and by means of a certain monotony relation between distribution functions optimality of this estimator is proved and the designing problem is investigated. A robustness property of optimal designs against the designing criterion and some conclusions are given concerning the least squares estimator in the case of G- and C-optimality.     

Asymptotic theory and inference of predictive mean matching imputation using a superpopulation model framework

Predictive mean matching imputation is popular for handling item nonresponse in survey sampling. In this article, we study the asymptotic properties of the predictive mean matching estimator for finite-population inference using a superpopulation model framework. We also clarify conditions for its robustness. For variance estimation, the conventional bootstrap inference is invalid for matching estimators with a fixed number of matches due to the nonsmoothness nature of the matching estimator. We propose a new replication variance estimator, which is asymptotically valid. The key strategy is to construct replicates directly based on the linear terms of the martingale representation for the matching estimator, instead of individual records of variables. Simulation studies confirm that the proposed method provides valid inference.     

Estimating the Upper Support Point in Deconvolution

Abstract.  We consider estimation of the upper boundary point F ⁻¹ (1) of a distribution function F with finite upper boundary or 'frontier' in deconvolution problems, primarily focusing on deconvolution models where the noise density is decreasing on the positive halfline. Our estimates are based on the (non-parametric) maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of F . We show that (1) is asymptotically never too small. If the convolution kernel has bounded support the estimator (1) can generally be expected to be consistent. In this case, we establish a relation between the extreme value index of F and the rate of convergence of (1) to the upper support point for the 'boxcar' deconvolution model. If the convolution density has unbounded support, (1) can be expected to overestimate the upper support point. We define consistent estimators , for appropriately chosen vanishing sequences ( β _n ) and study these in a particular case.     

Nonparametric Bayes estimation of gap-time distribution with recurrent event data

Nonparametric Bayes (NPB) estimation of the gap-time survivor function governing the time to occurrence of a recurrent event in the presence of censoring is considered. In our Bayesian approach, the gap-time distribution, denoted by F, has a Dirichlet process prior with parameter α. We derive NPB and nonparametric empirical Bayes (NPEB) estimators of the survivor function F?=1?F and construct point-wise credible intervals. The resulting Bayes estimator of F? extends that based on single-event right-censored data, and the PL-type estimator is a limiting case of this Bayes estimator. Through simulation studies, we demonstrate that the PL-type estimator has smaller biases but higher root-mean-squared errors (RMSEs) than those of the NPB and the NPEB estimators. Even in the case of a mis-specified prior measure parameter α, the NPB and the NPEB estimators have smaller RMSEs than the PL-type estimator, indicating robustness of the NPB and NPEB estimators. In addition, the NPB and NPEB estimators are smoother (in some sense) than the PL-type estimator.     

A new approach to use multivariate auxiliary information in sample surveys

A new approach to form multivariate difference estimator is suggested which does not require the knowledge of unknown population parameters as such. It gives minimum variance among the class of multivariate difference estimators. The performance of this estimator with respect to Des Raj's (J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 60 (1965), 270–277) multivariate difference estimator is illustrated. Using the information on two auxiliary variates, the robustness of Des Raj's estimator y_d is studied empirically. Two new estimators to estimate population mean/total are developed on the same lines as that of y_d. The performance of these estimators is studied for a wide variety of populations.     

Minimum distance estimation in linear regression with strong mixing errors

Abstract

Minimum distance estimation on the linear regression model with independent errors is known to yield an efficient and robust estimator. We extend the method to the model with strong mixing errors and obtain an estimator of the vector of the regression parameters. The goal of this article is to demonstrate the proposed estimator still retains efficiency and robustness. To that end, this article investigates asymptotic distributional properties of the proposed estimator and compares it with other estimators. The efficiency and the robustness of the proposed estimator are empirically shown, and its superiority over the other estimators is established.     

A TWO-PHASE SAMPLING ESTIMATOR IN SAMPLE SURVEYS

A two-phase sampling estimator of the ratio-type for estimating the mean of a finite population, has been considered where the value of ρC_y/C_x can be guessed or estimated in advance. Here C_y and C_x denote respectively the coefficients of variation of the characteristic under study, y, and the auxiliary characteristic x and ρ denotes the coefficient of correlation between y and x. When the value of ρC_y/C_x is guessed or estimated exactly, the estimator has a smaller large-sample variance compared with either an ordinary ratio estimator or an ordinary linear regression estimator in two-phase sampling in the case where the first-phase sample is drawn independently from the second-phase sample. If the sample at the second phase is a subsample of the first-phase sample, the estimator has variance equal to that of the linear regression estimator. The largest value of the difference between the assumed value and the actual value of ρC_y/C_x has been obtained so as not to result in the variance of the estimator being larger than the variances of either an ordinary ratio estimator or an ordinary linear regression estimator.     

A two-step robust estimation of the process mean using M-estimator

Parameter estimation is the first step in constructing control charts. One of these parameters is the process mean. The classical estimators of the process mean are sensitive to the presence of outlying data and subgroups which contaminate the whole data. In existing robust estimators for the process mean, the effects of the presence of the individual outliers are being considered, while, in this paper, a robust estimator is being proposed to reduce the effect of outlying subgroups as well as the individual outliers within a subgroup. The proposed estimator was compared with some classical and robust estimators of the process mean. Although, its relative efficiency is fourth among the estimators tested, its robustness and efficiency are large when the outlying subgroups are present. Evaluation of the results indicated that the proposed estimator is less sensitive to the presence of outliers and the process mean performs well when there are no individual outliers or outlying subgroups.     

The Minimum Density Power Divergence Estimation for the Lognormal Density

In this article, we implement the minimum density power divergence estimation for estimating the parameters of the lognormal density. We compare the minimum density power divergence estimator (MDPDE) and the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) in terms of robustness and asymptotic distribution. The simulations and an example indicate that the MDPDE is less biased than MLE and is as good as MLE in terms of the mean square error under various distributional situations.