Half-sample variance estimation

This paper studies an alternative to the jackknife variance estimator, the half-sample variance estimator. Both theoretical and Monte Carlo comparisons between the half-sample variance estimator and the jackknife variance estimator indicate that the former is better in some situations.     

Estimation of nonlinear errors-in-variables models: an approximate solution

We propose an easy to derive and simple to compute approximate least squares or maximum likelihood estimator for nonlinear errors-in-variables models that does not require the knowledge of the conditional density of the latent variables given the observables. Specific examples and Monte Carlo studies demonstrate that the bias of this approximate estimator is small even when the magnitude of the variance of measurement errors to the variance of measured covariates is large. Cheng Hsiao and Qing Wang's work was supported in part by National Science Foundation grant SeS91-22481 and SBR94-09540. Liqun Wang gratefully acknowledges the financial support from Swiss National Science Foundation. We wish to thank Professor H. Schneeweiss and a referee for helpful comments and suggestions.     

Estimation of finite population variance in successive sampling using multi-auxiliary variables

ABSTRACT

In this paper, a general class of estimators for estimating the finite population variance in successive sampling on two occasions using multi-auxiliary variables has been proposed. The expression of variance has also been derived. Further, it has been shown that the proposed general class of estimators is more efficient than the usual variance estimator and the class of variance estimators proposed by Singh et al. (2011) when we used more than one auxiliary variable. In addition, we support this with the aid of numerical illustration.     

A note on the estimation of variance of sample mean Using the knowledge of coefficient of variation in normal population

A class of estimators for the variance of sample mean is defined and its properties are studied in case of normal population. It is identified that the usual unbiased estimator, Singh, Pandey and Hirano (1973) -type estimator and Lee (1931) estimator are particular members of the proposed class of estimators. It is found that the minimum Mean Squared Error (MSE) of the proposed class of estimators is less than that of other estimators.     

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     

Estimation of the Length Distribution of Marine Populations in the Gaussian-multinomial Setting using the Method of Moments

In this paper, the problem of estimation of the length distribution of marine populations in the Gaussian-multinomial model is considered. For the purpose of the mean and covariance parameter estimation, the method of moments estimators are developed. That is, minimum variance linear unbiased estimator for the mean frequency vector is derived and a consistent estimator for the covariance matrix of the length observations is presented. The usefulness of the proposed estimators is illustrated with an analysis of real cod length measurement data.     

Super efficient frequency estimation

In this paper we propose a modified Newton-Raphson method to obtain super efficient estimators of the frequencies of a sinusoidal signal in presence of stationary noise. It is observed that if we start from an initial estimator with convergence rate O_p(n⁻¹) and use Newton-Raphson algorithm with proper step factor modification, then it produces super efficient frequency estimator in the sense that its asymptotic variance is lower than the asymptotic variance of the corresponding least squares estimator. The proposed frequency estimator is consistent and it has the same rate of convergence, namely O_p(n^−3/2), as the least squares estimator. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to observe the performance of the proposed estimator for different sample sizes and for different models. The results are quite satisfactory. One real data set has been analyzed for illustrative purpose.     

Comparative Study of Blu and ML Estimators of Location and Scale Parameters of an Extreme Value Distribution for Small Samples and Type I Censorship

The Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Best Linear Unbiased (BLU) estimators of the location and scale parameters of an extreme value distribution (Lawless [1982]) are compared under conditions of small sample sizes and Type I censorship. The comparisons were made in terms of the mean square error criterion. According to this criterion, the ML estimator of σ in the case of very small sample sizes (n < 10) and heavy censorship (low censoring time) proved to be more efficient than the corresponding BLU estimator. However, the BLU estimator for σ attains parity with the corresponding ML estimator when the censoring time increases even for sample sizes as low as 10. The BLU estimator of σ attains equivalence with the ML estimator when the sample size increases above 10, particularly when the censoring time is also increased. The situation is reversed when it came to estimating the location parameter μ, as the BLU estimator was found to be consistently more efficient than the ML estimator despite the improved performance of the ML estimator when the sample size increases. However, computational ease and convenience favor the ML estimators.     

Réduction de la variance dans les sondages en présence d'information auxiliarie: Une approache non paramétrique par splines de régression

The author considers the use of auxiliary information available at population level to improve the estimation of finite population totals. She introduces a new type of model‐assisted estimator based on nonparametric regression splines. The estimator is a weighted linear combination of the study variable with weights calibrated to the B‐splines known population totals. The author shows that the estimator is asymptotically design‐unbiased and consistent under conditions which do not require the superpopulation model to be correct. She proposes a design‐based variance approximation and shows that the anticipated variance is asymptotically equivalent to the Godambe‐Joshi lower bound. She also shows through simulations that the estimator has good properties.     

Improved Ratio- and Product-Type Exponential Estimators for Population Mean in Case of Post-Stratification

This paper discusses the problem of estimation of population mean in case of post-stratification. Improved ratio- and product-type exponential estimators of finite population mean are suggested with their case of post-stratification. Bias and mean-squared error of the suggested estimators are obtained up to the first degree of approximation. Suggested estimators have been compared with unbiased estimator, ratio estimator, and product estimator in case of post-stratification. An empirical study has been carried out to demonstrate the performance of the suggested estimator.     

Combining the unrestricted estimators into a single estimator and a simulation study on the unrestricted estimators

The purpose of this paper is to combine several regression estimators (ordinary least squares (OLS), ridge, contraction, principal components regression (PCR), Liu, r?k and r?d class estimators) into a single estimator. The conditions for the superiority of this new estimator over the PCR, the r?k class, the r?d class, β?(k, d), OLS, ridge, Liu and contraction estimators are derived by the scalar mean square error criterion and the estimators of the biasing parameters for this new estimator are examined. Also, a numerical example based on Hald data and a simulation study are used to illustrate the results.     

Estimation of rare and clustered population variance in adaptive cluster sampling

Abstract

Many researchers used auxiliary information together with survey variable to improve the efficiency of population parameters like mean, variance, total and proportion. Ratio and regression estimation are the most commonly used methods that utilized auxiliary information in different ways to get the maximum benefits in the form of high precision of the estimators. Thompson first introduced the concept of Adaptive cluster sampling, which is an appropriate technique for collecting the samples from rare and clustered populations. In this article, a generalized exponential type estimator is proposed and its properties have been studied for the estimation of rare and highly clustered population variance using single auxiliary information. A numerical study is carried out on a real and artificial population to judge the performance of the proposed estimator over the competing estimators. It is shown that the proposed generalized exponential type estimator is more efficient than the adaptive and non adaptive estimators under conventional sampling design.     

On the cramer-frechet-rao inequality for translation parameter in the case of finite support

In this paper we investigate the problem of deriving the C-F-R (CRAMER-FRECHET-RAO) bound for the variance of an unbiased estimator of the translation para¬meter for a class of distributions having as support an interval of fixed length. Starting with the general form of the O-F-R, inequality studied earlier by VINCZE (1979) for mixed

densities, we prove some inequalities related to the information quantity occurring in the C-F-R bound. The case when the variance of the unbiased estimator does not depend upon the translation parameter is investigated. The case when the variance depends upon the translation parameter is also briefly discussed. Finally some remarks will be given

concerning the attainability of the variance,bounds given in this paper     

RANKED SET SAMPLING FROM LOCATION-SCALE FAMILIES OF SYMMETRIC DISTRIBUTIONS

Statistical inference based on ranked set sampling has primarily been motivated by nonparametric problems. However, the sampling procedure can provide an improved estimator of the population mean when the population is partially known. In this article, we consider estimation of the population mean and variance for the location-scale families of distributions. We derive and compare different unbiased estimators of these parameters based on rindependent replications of a ranked set sample of size n.Large sample properties, along with asymptotic relative efficiencies, help identify which estimators are best suited for different location-scale distributions.     

Outlier detection using difference-based variance estimators in multiple regression

In this article, we propose an outlier detection approach in a multiple regression model using the properties of a difference-based variance estimator. This type of a difference-based variance estimator was originally used to estimate error variance in a non parametric regression model without estimating a non parametric function. This article first employed a difference-based error variance estimator to study the outlier detection problem in a multiple regression model. Our approach uses the leave-one-out type method based on difference-based error variance. The existing outlier detection approaches using the leave-one-out approach are highly affected by other outliers, while ours is not because our approach does not use the regression coefficient estimator. We compared our approach with several existing methods using a simulation study, suggesting the outperformance of our approach. The advantages of our approach are demonstrated using a real data application. Our approach can be extended to the non parametric regression model for outlier detection.     

On the Estimation of the Probability Density by Trigonometric Series

We present in this article an estimator based on a new orthogonal trigonometric series. We give its statistical properties (bias, variance, mean square error, and mean integrated square error) and the asymptotic properties (convergence of variance, convergence of the mean square error, convergence of the mean integrated square error, uniform convergence in probability, and the rate of convergence of the mean integrated square error). The comparison by simulation on a test density between the estimator obtained from a new trigonometric series with Fejer estimator also based on orthogonal trigonometric series, shows that our estimator is more performant in the sense of the mean integrated square error.     

样本选择模型的一个简单半参数估计量

本文发展了一个针对样本选择模型的两阶段半参数估计量,其首先在第一阶段基于对数欧几里得分布差异测度估计离散选择概率,进而在第二阶段利用非参数sieve方法估计一个包含参数和非参数部分的部分线性模型以得到模型参数的估计。相对于文献中已有的半参数估计量,该估计量的计算更加简便,且计算负担相对较小。我们说明了该半参数估计量的一致性和渐近正态性,同时给出了其渐近方差的计算公式。蒙特卡洛模拟结果符合我们的理论结论。     

Variances of UMVU Estimators for Means and Variances After Using a Normalizing Transformation

Suppose that the function f is of recursive type and the random variable X is normally distributed with mean μ and variance α². We set C = f(x). Neyman & Scott (1960) and Hoyle (1968) gave the UMVU estimators for the mean E(C) and for the variance Var(C) from independent and identically distributed random variables X₁,…, X_n(n ≧ 2) having a normal distribution with mean μ and variance σ², respectively. Shimizu & Iwase (1981) gave the variance of the UMVU estimator for E(C). In this paper, the variance of the UMVU estimator for Var(C) is given.     

A new method of imputation in survey sampling

In this paper, an alternative estimator of population mean in the presence of non-response has been suggested which comes in the form of Walsh's estimator. The estimator of mean obtained from the proposed technique remains better than the estimators obtained from ratio or mean methods of imputation. The mean-squared error (MSE) of the resultant estimator is less than that of the estimator obtained on the basis of ratio method of imputation for the optimum choice of parameters. An estimator for estimating a parameter involved in the process of new method of imputation has been discussed. A suggestion to form ‘warm deck’ method of imputation has been suggested. The MSE expressions for the proposed estimators have been derived analytically and compared empirically. The work has been extended to the case of multi-auxiliary information to be used for imputation. Numerical illustrations are also provided.     

Inference on the Common Variance of Correlated Normal Random Variables

ABSTRACT

Scale equivariant estimators of the common variance σ², of correlated normal random variables, have mean squared errors (MSE) which depend on the unknown correlations. For this reason, a scale equivariant estimator of σ² which uniformly minimizes the MSE does not exist. For the equi-correlated case, we have developed three equivariant estimators of σ²: a Bayesian estimator for invariant prior as well as two non-Bayesian estimators. We then generalized these three estimators for the case of several variables with multiple unknown correlations. In addition, we developed a system of confidence intervals which produce the desired coverage probability while being efficient in terms of expected length.