Description: The minimum distance estimator proposed allows for the selection of the best fitting family member without prior distributional assumptions. It is shown that this estimator is consistent and can be made either robust or asymptotically efficient. Its asymptotic distribution is derived and and illustrated with automobile insurance data. From the Actuarial Research Clearing House 1990 Vol. 1

Description: In this paper, we study a survival regression model known as Cox's proportional Hazards model. We assume that the data available are already grouped and develop a minimum distance estimation procedure that is also applicable when the data are also left or right censored. Asymptotic properties of the estimators are established and the numerical implementation of the method based on an iterated reweighted least squares algorithm is discussed.