When Is it Preferable to Estimate Population Percentiles From a Set of Classes Rather Than From the Raw Data?

Guy Châtillon, Réal Gélinas, Louise Martin and Louis Laurencelle

Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 1987, vol. 12, issue 4, 395-409

Abstract: For estimating percentiles of a distribution from a sample, it turns out that in many cases the observed percentiles provide better estimates when they are based on grouped data than when based on the raw data. This is the case especially when the data set is relatively small and the population distribution is not too skewed or heavy-tailed. This fact is surprising and contrary to the general feeling. Applied statisticians and producers of calculators could take advantage of it by implementing a small program for estimating percentiles from grouped data within their calculators. Such a program is generally impracticable if one uses raw data, due to lack of memory space and length of computing time.

Keywords: Descriptive statistics; percentiles; median; grouped data; small calculators; mean squared error (MSE); simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1987
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/10769986012004395 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:jedbes:v:12:y:1987:i:4:p:395-409

DOI: 10.3102/10769986012004395

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().