Approximate martingale estimating functions for stochastic differential equations with small noises

An approximate martingale estimating function with an eigenfunction is proposed for an estimation problem about an unknown drift parameter for a one-dimensional diffusion process with small perturbed parameter [epsilon] from discrete time observations at n regularly spaced time points k/n, k=0,1,...,n. We show asymptotic efficiency of an M-estimator derived from the approximate martingale estimating function as [epsilon]-->0 and n-->[infinity] simultaneously.