Econometrica

Journal Of The Econometric Society

An International Society for the Advancement of Economic
Theory in its Relation to Statistics and Mathematics

Edited by: Guido W. Imbens • Print ISSN: 0012-9682 • Online ISSN: 1468-0262

Econometrica: Sep, 1986, Volume 54, Issue 5

Stability Comparison of Estimators

https://doi.org/0012-9682(198609)54:5<1207:SCOE>2.0.CO;2-F
p. 1207-1236

Donald W. K. Andrews

This paper investigates a property of estimators called stability. The stability exponent of an estimator is defined to be a measure of the effect of any single observation in the sample on the realized value of the estimator. High stability often is desirable for robustness against misspecification and against highly variable observations. Stability exponents are determined and compared for a wide variety of estimators and economietric models. They are found to depend on the maximal moment exponent (i.e., the number of finite moments) of the estimator's influence curve. Since it is possible often to construct estimators with specified influence curves, estimators with different stability exponents can be constructed.


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