This book provides a selection of pioneering papers or extracts ranging from Pascal (1654) to R.A. Fisher (1930). The editors'annotations put the articles in perspective for the modern reader. A special feature of the book is the large number of translations, nearly all made by the authors. There are several reasons for studying the history of statistics: intrinsic interest in how the field of statistics developed, learning from often brilliant ideas and not reinventing the wheel, and livening up general courses in statistics by reference to important contributors.

A completely revised and expanded edition of a classic resource

In the over twenty years since the publication of the Second Edition of Order Statistics, the theories and applications of this dynamic field have changed markedly. Meeting the challenges and demands of today’s students and research community, authors H. A. David and H. N. Nagaraja return with a completely revised and updated Order Statistics, Third Edition.

Chapters two through nine of this comprehensive volume deal with finite-sample theory, with individual topics grouped under distribution theory (chapters two through six) and statistical inference (chapters seven through nine). Chapters ten and eleven cover asymptotic theory for central, intermediate, and extreme order statistics, representing twice the coverage of this subject than the previous edition. New sections include:

• Stochastic orderings
• Characterizations
• Distribution-free prediction intervals
• Bootstrap estimations
• Moving order statistics
• Studentized range
• Ranked-set sampling
• Estimators of tail index

The authors further explain application procedures for many data-analysis techniques and quality control. An appendix provides a guide to related tables and computer algorithms. Extensive exercise sets have been updated since the last edition. In spite of many eliminations, the total number of references has increased from 1,000 to 1,500.

Expanded coverage of shortcut methods, robust estimation, life testing, reliability, L-statistics, and extreme-value theory complete this one-of-a-kind resource. Students and researchers of order statistics will appreciate this updated and thorough edition.