A New Look at the Visual Performance of Nonparametric Hazard Rate Estimators

Abstract

Nonparametric curve estimation by kernel methods has attracted widespread interest in theoretical and applied statistics. One area of conflict between theory and application relates to the evaluation of the performance of the estimators. Recently, Marron and Tsybakov (1995) proposed {\it visual error criteria} for addressing this issue of controversy in density estimation. Their core idea consists in using integrated alternatives to the Hausdorff distance for measuring the closeness of two sets based onthe Euclidean distance. In this paper, we transfer these ideas to hazard rate estimation from censored data. We are able to derive similar results that help to understand when the application of the new criteria will lead to answers that differ from those given by the conventional approaches.

8 pages, no figures. Statistical Research Report, Department of Mathematics, University of Oslo, June 1997, but now arXiv'd March 2026. Has later appeared in "Data Highways and Information Flooding, a Challenge for Classification and Data Analysis", 1997, Springer Verlag