Computable MINQUE-Type Estimates of Variance Components

Abstract

Abstract The minimum norm quadratic unbiased estimator type (MINQUE type) of estimates considered in this article are obtained by requiring identical values for the ratios of the a priori variances to the a priori error variance and letting this common value tend to infinity. The resulting estimates are invariant quadratic unbiased estimators with certain parametric and nonparametric optimality properties: assuming normally distributed random effects the efficiency of the proposed estimates to the minimum variance quadratic unbiased estimates (MIVQUE's) approaches unity when the true variance ratios are identical and tend to infinity. Assuming nonnormal effect distributions in the model with two variance components, the estimates are asymptotically efficient: in a sequence of designs where the number of classes and the number of observations on each class approach infinity, it is shown that the asymptotic variances of the estimates are equivalent to the theoretical minimum variances for invariant quadrati...