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8 - Fitting distributions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

George F. Estabrook
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
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Summary

Estimators are random variables

You may choose to hypothesize variability using a random variable with a parametric distribution. Once you have hypothesized an appropriate family of parametric distributions, you still must hypothesize appropriate values for the parameters. If you have observed data, then one approach is to use your hypothesis that the observed data sampled a random variable with some distribution from that parametric family to estimate the parameters. This can be done in a variety of ways. Notice that your data are now assumed to be samples of a random variable. When you do arithmetic with the data to create an estimate of the parameters, such an estimate itself becomes a random variable, described by its distribution.

Hypothesize that your data have been generated by a binary random variable, b, repeatedly sampled independently, but you do not hypothesize a value for p != Pr(b = 1). Instead you guess p from the data that you have observed. By what criteria could you make that guess? What properties might such guesses have?

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Chapter
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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  • Fitting distributions
  • George F. Estabrook, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • Book: A Computational Approach to Statistical Arguments in Ecology and Evolution
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511783708.008
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  • Fitting distributions
  • George F. Estabrook, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • Book: A Computational Approach to Statistical Arguments in Ecology and Evolution
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511783708.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Fitting distributions
  • George F. Estabrook, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • Book: A Computational Approach to Statistical Arguments in Ecology and Evolution
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511783708.008
Available formats
×