A Composite Generalized Cross-Entropy Formulation in Small Samples Estimation

This article introduces a maximum entropy-based estimation methodology that can be used both to represent the uncertainty of a partial-incomplete economic data generation process and to consider the direct influence of learning from repeated samples. Then, a composite cross-entropy estimator, incorporating information from a subpopulation based on a small sample and from a population with a larger sample size, is derived. The proposed estimator is employed to estimate the local area expenditure shares of a sub population of Italian households using a system of censored demand equations.