We consider a new estimator of scale for exponential samples which is most B-robust in the sense of Hampel et al. (1986). This estimator is compared with two other estimators which were proposed by Rousseeuw and Croux (1993) but for a Gaussian model. All three estimators have the same breakdown...

This paper deals with the problem of estimating the location parameter of a two parameter exponential distribution in case of contaminated data. Since in this case the sample minimum is an extremely unreliable estimator, robust alternatives are necessary. We investigate two types of estimators...

We investigate the effect of the 20 largest – in terms of insured losses – man-made or natural disasters on the insurance industry. We show via an event study that insurance markets worldwide are quite resilient to unexpected losses to capital and are even outperforming the general market...

We consider 1927 borrowers from 54 countries who had a credit rating by both Moody's and S&P at the end of 1998, and their subsequent default history up to the end of 2002. Viewing bond ratings as predicted probabilities of default, we consider partial orderings among competing probability...

The paper explores the relationship between various orderings among probability forecasts that have been suggested in the literature. It is shown that well calibrated forecasters are in general not comparable according to the domination ordering suggested by Vardeman and Meeden (1983), that the...

We investigate the OLS-based estimator s2 of the disturbance variance in the standard linear regression model with cross section data when the disturbances are homoskedastic, but spatially correlated. For the most popular model of spatially autoregressive disturbances, we show that s2 can be...