New design-based ratio and difference estimators of the distribution function are defined by minimizing the mean square error of a class of estimators. Proposed estimators do not assume a superpopulation model between the variable of interest and the auxiliary variable. Results derived from...

In this paper, we propose a simple test for the continuity of a distribution function or of the type of distribution. The main advantage of our test in comparison to others, as used in earnings-management studies, for example, is that no assumptions regarding the underlying distribution function...

In the study of earnings management, researchers attempt to know the reason managers manipulate earnings of a company. Some preceding studies have focused on the distribution of reported earnings, and they treat the evidence of manipulation on earnings as discontinuity (at most cases around zero...