The Kaplan-Meier Estimator as a Sum over Units
arXiv:2511.04721 · doi:10.1007/s44248-026-00111-4
Abstract
A sum-wise formulation is proposed for the Kaplan-Meier product limit estimator of partially right-censored survival data. The population estimator is expressed as a sum over the individual units' empirical and semi-empirical contributions, for observed and censored failures, respectively. This intuitive decomposition is applied to visualize the different contributions of failed and censored units to the overall population estimator.
13 pages, 6 figures