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Which divisor gives the lowest-error variance estimate?

You have n=10n = 10 independent draws from a normal distribution and estimate the variance σ2\sigma^2 by dividing the sum of squared deviations SS=i(XiXˉ)2\text{SS} = \sum_i (X_i - \bar X)^2 by a constant. The usual choices are n1=9n-1 = 9 (unbiased), n=10n = 10 (maximum likelihood), and n+1=11n+1 = 11.

Which divisor gives the smallest mean squared error?

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