IMPROVED ESTIMATION OF SURVIVAL FUNCTIONS IN THE NEW-BETTER-THAN-USED CLASS

In this article, we consider the problem of nonparametric estimation of life distributions that satisfy the New-Better-Than-Used (NBU) property. Focus is on estimators that possess the NBU property. We propose several possible estimators and compare their properties with the properties of two previously known estimators. We conclude that two of the estimators introduced in this article perform better than the previously known estimators-especially if the sample sizes are not large.