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AN ESTIMATION PARADOX ARISING IN POPULATION GENETICS THEORY 1
Author(s) -
Ewens W. J.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
australian journal of statistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.434
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-842X
pISSN - 0004-9581
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-842x.1983.tb00379.x
Subject(s) - estimation , statistic , population , statistics , sample (material) , value (mathematics) , mathematics , econometrics , computer science , demography , economics , sociology , physics , management , thermodynamics
Summary We consider a stochastic process describing the evolution of a certain population. A sample is taken from this population in some given generation and is to be used for estimation purposes. It is shown that if one wishes to estimate, from the sample, the actual value of a certain population quantity F in the current generation, estimation using a statistic f is preferred to estimation using a different statistic k , whereas, if one wishes to estimate the mean value of F relative to the stochastic process describing the population evolution, estimation using k is preferred to estimation using f.