Statistical Inference of Weighted Exponential Distribution under Joint Progressive Type-II Censoring

Abstract

The weighted exponential distribution is a promising skewed distribution in the life-testing experiment. The joint progressive type-II censoring (JPC) scheme is an effective approach to reducing costs. In this paper, we consider the estimates of parameters of the weighted exponential distribution with the JPC data. Two populations, whose scale parameters are the same but the shape parameters of which are different, are chosen to be studied. We first evaluate the parameters with the maximum likelihood method. Because the maximum likelihood estimates of parameters cannot be obtained in closed form, we apply the Newton–Raphson method in this part. Bayesian estimates and the corresponding credible intervals under the squared error loss function are computed by using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. After that, we use the bootstrap method to calculate the associated confidence intervals of the unknown parameters. A simulation has been performed to test the feasibility of the above methods and real data analysis is also provided for illustrative purposes.

Keywords

• joint progressive type-II censoring scheme
• weighted exponential distribution
• maximum likelihood estimate
• bootstrap
• Bayesian estimate
• Markov Chain Monte Carlo method