Pak.j.stat.oper.res. Vol.VII No.2 2011 pp217-232 Estimation Accuracy of Exponential Distribution Parameters

The exponential distribution is commonly used to model the behavior of units that have a constant failure rate. The two-parameter exponential distribution provides a simple but nevertheless useful model for the analysis of lifetimes, especially when investigating reliability of technical equipment. This paper is concerned with estimation of parameters of the two parameter (location and scale) exponential distribution. We used the least squares method (LSM), relative least squares method (RELS), ridge regression method (RR), moment estimators (ME), modified moment estimators (MME), maximum likelihood estimators (MLE) and modified maximum likelihood estimators (MMLE). We used the mean square error MSE, and total deviation TD, as measurement for the comparison between these methods. We determined the best method for estimation using different values for the parameters and different sample sizes