Estimating Functions

This volume comprises a comprehensive collection of original papers on the subject of estimating functions. It is intended to provide statisticians with an overview of both the theory and the applications of estimating functions in biostatistics, stochastic processes, and survey sampling. From the early 1960s when the concept of optimality criterion was first formulated, together with later work on optimal estimating functions, this subject has become both an active research area in its own right and also a corner-stone of the modern theory of statistics. Individual chapters have been written by experts in their respective fields and as a result this volume will be an invaluable reference guide to this topic as well as providing an introduction to the area for non-experts. Contributors to this volume - P. Basak, Department of Mathematics, Penn State University, Ivy Side, Altoona, Pennsylvania 16603, USA; I.V. Basawa, Department of Statistics, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA; Vasant P. Bhapkar, Department of Statistics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506, USA; S.R. Chamberlin, Department of Theoretical Statistics, Mathematical Institute, Aarhus University, DK-8000, Aarhus C, Denmark; I-Shou Chang, Department of Mathematics, National Central University, Chung-Li, Taiwan, Republic of China; D.R. Cox, Nuffield College, Oxford OX1 1NF; C.B. Dean, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6; A.F. Desmond, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1; H. Ferguson, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1; Chris J. Lloyd, Department of Statistics, La Trobe University, Bandoora, Victoria, Australia 3083; D.L. McLeish, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1; H. Mantel, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada K1S 5B6, P.I. Nelson, Department of Statistics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, USA; R.L. Prentice, Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1124 Columbia Street, Seattle, Washington 98104, USA; N. Reid, Department of Statistics, University of Toronto, 100 St George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1; Y. Ritov, Department of Statistics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91905, Israel; Christopher G. Small, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1, D.A. Sprott, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1, A. Thavaneswaran, Department of Statistics, The University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 2N2; k. Vijayan, Department of Mathematics, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia,6009