Optimal B-robust estimators for the parameters of the Burr XII distribution

The Burr XII distribution offers a flexible alternative to the distributions that play important role for modelling data in reliability, risk and process capability. However, estimating the shape parameters of the Burr XII distribution is a challenging problem. The classical estimation methods such as maximum likelihood and least squares are often used to estimate the parameters of the Burr XII distribution, but these methods are very sensitive to the outliers in the data. Thus, a robust estimation method alternative to the classical methods is needed to find robust estimators that are less sensitive to the outliers in the data. The purpose of this paper is to use the optimal B-robust estimation method [Hampel FR, Ronchetti EM, Rousseeuw PJ, Stahel WA. Robust statistics: the approach based on influence functions. New York: Wiley; 1986] to obtain robust estimators for the shape parameters of the Burr XII distribution. The simulation results show that the optimal B-robust estimators generally outperform the classical estimators in terms of the bias and root mean square errors when there are outliers in data.     

A new lifetime distribution

Many if not most lifetime distributions are motivated only by mathematical interest. Here, a new three-parameter distribution motivated mainly by lifetime issues is introduced. Some properties of the new distribution including estimation procedures, univariate generalizations and bivariate generalizations are derived. A real data application is described to show its superior performance versus at least that of 15 of the known lifetime models.     

A likelihood ratio test to discriminate exponential–Poisson and gamma distributions

The exponential–Poisson (EP) distribution with scale and shape parameters β>0 and λ∈?, respectively, is a lifetime distribution obtained by mixing exponential and zero-truncated Poisson models. The EP distribution has been a good alternative to the gamma distribution for modelling lifetime, reliability and time intervals of successive natural disasters. Both EP and gamma distributions have some similarities and properties in common, for example, their densities may be strictly decreasing or unimodal, and their hazard rate functions may be decreasing, increasing or constant depending on their shape parameters. On the other hand, the EP distribution has several interesting applications based on stochastic representations involving maximum and minimum of iid exponential variables (with random sample size) which make it of distinguishable scientific importance from the gamma distribution. Given the similarities and different scientific relevance between these models, one question of interest is how to discriminate them. With this in mind, we propose a likelihood ratio test based on Cox's statistic to discriminate the EP and gamma distributions. The asymptotic distribution of the normalized logarithm of the ratio of the maximized likelihoods under two null hypotheses – data come from EP or gamma distributions – is provided. With this, we obtain the probabilities of correct selection. Hence, we propose to choose the model that maximizes the probability of correct selection (PCS). We also determinate the minimum sample size required to discriminate the EP and gamma distributions when the PCS and a given tolerance level based on some distance are before stated. A simulation study to evaluate the accuracy of the asymptotic probabilities of correct selection is also presented. The paper is motivated by two applications to real data sets.     

Reliability of stress–strength model for exponentiated Pareto distributions

In this paper, the reliability of a system is discussed when the strength of the system and the stress imposed on it are independent, non-identical exponentiated Pareto distributed random variables. Different point estimations and interval estimations are proposed. The point estimators obtained are maximum likelihood, uniformly minimum variance unbiased and Bayesian estimators. The interval estimations obtained are approximate, exact, bootstrap-p and bootstrap-t confidence intervals and Bayesian credible interval. Different methods and the corresponding confidence intervals are compared using Monte-carlo simulations.     

The labour market flexibility debate in India: Re‐examining the case for signing voluntary contracts

A major focus of India's ongoing policy debate over labour market flexibilization has been the statutory requirement that firms employing 100 or more workers cannot dismiss employees without prior government permission. The case for repealing that requirement (or greatly increasing the workforce threshold) is notably underpinned by Basu, Fields and Debgupta (2009). Here, the author challenges their particular theoretical argument for hiring and firing at will based on the voluntary signing of contracts, demonstrating that their general policy conclusion is logically unsustainable even within the framework of that model. The case for labour market flexibilization through voluntary contracting thus remains unfounded.     

Prediction intervals for future Weibull residual data

In reliability theory, risk analysis, renewal processes and actuarial studies, the residual lifetimes data play an important essential role in studying the conditional tail of the lifetime data. In this paper, based on some observed ordered residual Weibull data, we introduce different prediction methods for obtaining prediction intervals (PIs) of future residual lifetimes including likelihood, Wald, moments, parametric bootstrap, and highest conditional methods. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to compare the performances of the so obtained PIs and one data analysis is performed for illustration purposes.     

Higher-order Bayesian Approximations for Pseudo-posterior Distributions

The theory of higher-order asymptotics provides accurate approximations to posterior distributions for a scalar parameter of interest, and to the corresponding tail area, for practical use in Bayesian analysis. The aim of this article is to extend these approximations to pseudo-posterior distributions, e.g., posterior distributions based on a pseudo-likelihood function and a suitable prior, which are proved to be particularly useful when the full likelihood is analytically or computationally infeasible. In particular, from a theoretical point of view, we derive the Laplace approximation for a pseudo-posterior distribution, and for the corresponding tail area, for a scalar parameter of interest, also in the presence of nuisance parameters. From a computational point of view, starting from these higher-order approximations, we discuss the higher-order tail area (HOTA) algorithm useful to approximate marginal posterior distributions, and related quantities. Compared to standard Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, the main advantage of the HOTA algorithm is that it gives independent samples at a negligible computational cost. The relevant computations are illustrated by two examples.     

A new generalization of alpha-skew-normal distribution

In this paper, a new generalization of alpha-skew-normal distribution is considered. Some properties of this distribution, which is denoted by GASN(α, λ), including moments, maximum likelihood estimation of parameters, and some other properties are studied. Finally, using a real data set, we show that our new distribution is the best-fitted distribution for the used data among normal, skew normal, alpha-skew-normal, and skew-bimodal-normal distributions.     

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.