Abstract
In this paper, and in a context of regularly varying tails, we propose different alternatives to a well-known estimator of the tail index—the Hill estimator (Hill, 1975). These alternatives have essentially in mind a reduction in bias, preferably without increasing Mean Square Error, by the use of suitable Generalized Jackknife methodologies (Gray and Schucany, 1972). The first estimate obtained through this methodolgy is the one introduced by Peng (1998), under a different context. Other Generalized Jackknife estimators are linear combinations of Hill estimators at different levels. This methodology of affine combinations of Hill estimators at different levels may be easily generalized to other semi-parametric estimators of the tail index, like Pickands' estimator (Pickands, 1975) or the Moment's estimator (Dekkers et al., 1989), and consequently to a general real tail index, seeming to be a promising field of research.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beirlant, J., Vynckier, P., and Teugels, J.L., “Excess function and estimation of the extreme-value index,” Bernoulli 2, 293-318, (1996a).
Beirlant, J., Vynckier, P., and Teugels, J.L., “Tail index estimation, Pareto quantile plots, and regression diagnostics,” J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 91, 1659-1667, (1996b).
Beirlant, J., Dierckx, G., Goegebeur, Y., and Matthys, G., “Tail index estimation and an exponential regression model,” Extremes 2, 177-200, (1999).
Csörgo, S., Deheuvels, P. and Mason, D., “Kernel estimates of the tail index of a distribution,” Ann. Statist. 13, 1050-1077, (1985).
Dekkers, A.L.M., Einmahl, J.H.J., and de Haan, L., “A moment estimator for the index of an extreme-value distribution,” Ann. Statist. 17, 1833-1855, (1989).
Dekkers, A.L.M. and de Haan, L., “Optimal choice of sample fraction in extreme-value estimation,” J. of Multivariate Analysis 47, 173-195, (1993).
Drees, H. and Kaufmann, E., “Selecting the optimal sample fraction in univariate extreme value estimation,” Stoch. Proc. and Appl. 75, 149-172, (1998).
Feuerverger, A. and Hall, P., “Estimating a tail exponent by modelling departure from a Pareto distribution,” Ann. Statist. 27, 760-781, (1999).
Gnedenko, B.V., “Sur la distribution limite du terme maximum d'une série aléatoire,” Ann. Math. 44, 423-453, (1943).
Geluk, J. and de Haan, L., Regular Variation, Extensions and Tauberian Theorems. CWI Tract 40, Center for Mathematics and Computer Science, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1987.
Gomes, M.I. and Oliveira, O., The bootstrap methodology in Statistical Extremes—the choice of the optimal sample fraction. Notas e Comunicações CEAUL 15/98, (1998).
Gray, H.L. and Schucany, W.R., The Generalized Jackknife Statistic. Marcel Dekker, 1972.
Haan, L. de, On Regular Variation and its Application to the Weak Convergence of Sample Extremes. Mathematical Center Tract 32, Amsterdam, 1970.
Haan, L. de and Peng, L., “Comparison of tail index estimators,” Statistica Neerlandica 52, 60-70, (1998).
Haan, L. de and Stadtmüller U., “Generalized regular variation of second order,” J. Austral. Math. Soc. (A) 61, 381-395, (1996).
Hall, P. and Welsh, A.H., “Adaptive estimates of parameters of regular variation,” Ann. Statist. 13, 331-341, (1985).
Hill, B.M., “A simple general approach to inference about the tail of a distribution,” Ann. Statist. 3, 1163-1174, (1975).
Martins, M.J., Gomes, M.I., and M. Neves, “Some results on the behaviour of Hill's estimator,” J. Statist. Comput. and Simulation 63, 283-297, (1999).
Peng, L., “Asymptotically unbiased estimator for the extreme-value index,” Statistics and Probability Letters 38(2), 107-115, (1998).
Pickands III, J., “Statistical inference using extreme order statistics,” Ann. Statist. 3, 119-131, (1975).
Quenouille, B., “Notes on bias in estimation,” Biometrika 43, 353-360, (1956).
Tukey, J., “Bias and confidence in not quite large samples,” Ann. Math. Statist. 29, 614, (1958).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ivette Gomes, M., João Martins, M. & Neves, M. Alternatives to a Semi-Parametric Estimator of Parameters of Rare Events—The Jackknife Methodology*. Extremes 3, 207–229 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011470010228
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011470010228