Abstract
The introduction of the method of maximum likelihood by R.A. Fisher offered statisticians a procedure for parameter estimation and some related optimality criteria. The principal tool that had been available previously was the method of moments, developed by Karl Pearson some twenty years earlier. Fisher directly attacked the method of moments in much of his work, and attempted to show the superiority of his likelihood techniques. While Fisher’s views prevailed, the fact that the method of maximum likelihood (ML) and the method of moments (MM) were concerned, in part, with different questions belies any claim to actual superiority of one over the other. This lecture presents a comparison of the two methods and the goals of each. In it we review and summarize Pearson’s work and discuss some of Fisher’s criticisms. Many of the other presentations in this volume contain related discussions.
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References
Elderton, W.P. (1953). Frequency Curves and Correlation. Washington, D.C.: Harren Press.
Ord, J.K. (.1972 ). Families of Frequency Distributions. London: Griffin.
Pearson, E.S. (1938). Karl Pearson: An Appreciation of Some Aspects of His Life and Work. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Pearson, K. (1902). “On the Systematic Fitting of Curves to Observations and Measurements—Part I,” Biometrika, 1, 265–303.
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© 1980 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Mensch, R. (1980). Fisher and the Method of Moments. In: Fienberg, S.E., Hinkley, D.V. (eds) R.A. Fisher: An Appreciation. Lecture Notes in Statistics, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-6079-0_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-6079-0_8
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
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