On the construction of efficient estimators in semiparametric models

Summary This paper deals with the construction of efficient estimators in semiparametric models without the sample splitting technique. Schick (1987) gave sufficient conditions using the leave-one-out technique for a construction without sample splitting. His conditions are stronger and more cumbersome to verify than the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of efficient estimators which suffice for the construction based on sample splitting. In this paper we use a conditioning argument to weaken Schick′s conditions. We shall then show that in a large class of semiparametric models and for properly chosen estimators of the score function the resulting weaker conditions reduce to the minimal conditions for the construction with sample splitting. In other words, in these models efficient estimators can be constructed without sample splitting under the same conditions as those used for the construction with sample splitting. We demonstrate our results by constructing an efficient estimator using these ideas in a semiparametric additive regression model.