ESTIMATION IN THE 2-PARAMETER EXPONENTIAL-DISTRIBUTION WITH PRIOR INFORMATION

This paper proposes a class of estimators for the scale parameter and for the mean of a 2-parameter exponential distribution, given a prior estimate of the scale parameter. The class of estimators for the scale parameter is motivated by the work of Jani (1991). These estimators h ave smaller mean square error than the classical estimators for all va lues of the location parameter, and for values of the scale parameter ina neighborhood of the prior estimate. Numerical computations indicat e that certain of these estimators substantially improve the classical estimators for values of the scale parameter near the prior estimate, especially for small sample sizes.