Abstract:
In this paper, we consider the problem of estimating the median of a gamma distribution.
We introduce a new point estimator based on an approximation that we derive for the
median of a gamma distribution. We compare the new estimator with two conventional
estimators, namely the sample median and the maximum likelihood estimator (mle).
Comparison is based on the amount of computations required to calculate the estimates
and the root mean square errors of the estimators. The new estimator is shown to be
‘optimum’ with respect to these two criteria.