Jackknife and Bootstrap

Abstract

This chapter deals with statistical methods that, in some way, avoid mathematical difficulties that one would be facing using traditional approaches. The traditional approach of mathematical statistics is based on analytic expressions, or formulas, so avoiding these might seem itself a formidable task, especially in view of the chapters that so far have been covered. It should be pointed out that we have no objection of using mathematical formulas—in fact, some of these are pleasant to use. However, in many cases, such formulas are simply not available or too complicated to use.