SHRUNKEN ESTIMATORS VIA A PITMAN NEARNESS CRITERION

Shrunken estimators have traditionally been developed and studied using mean square error (MSE). Recent research on Pitman nearness (PN), however, indicates that it is an interesting, "intrinsic", alternative to the mean square error (MSE) criterion for investigating estimators. Thus, we develop a shrunken estimator for the mean of a multivariate normal distribution based on minimizing PN, instead of MSE. Further, since the shrinkage factor of this estimator depends on unknown parameters, we examine two approaches for determining this factor: (1) "plug-in" estimates, (2) a range of values for the factor based on an approximate confidence interval for the Pitman Nearness probability. A numerical example is given.