A note on the comparison of the bayesian and frequentist approaches to estimation

Abstract

Samaniego and Reneau presented a landmark study on the comparison of Bayesian and frequentist point estimators. Their findings indicate that Bayesian point estimators work well in more situations than were previously suspected. In particular, their comparison reveals how a Bayesian point estimator can improve upon a frequentist point estimator even in situations where sharp prior knowledge is not necessarily available. In the current paper, we show that similar results hold when comparing Bayesian and frequentist interval estimators. Furthermore, the development of an appropriate interval estimator comparison offers some further insight into the estimation problem. © 2012 Andrew A. Neath and Natalie Langenfeld.