On multiple imputation for unbalanced ranked set samples with applications in quantile estimation

Abstract

We consider multiple imputation (MI) for unbalanced ranked set samples (URSS) by considering them as data sets with missing values. We replace each missing value with a set of plausible values drawn from a predictive distribution that represents the uncertainty about the appropriate value to impute. Using the structure of the MI dataset, we develop algorithms that imitate the structure of URSS to carry out the desired statistical inference. We provide results for the convergence of the empirical distribution functions of imputed samples to the population distribution function, under both URSS and simple random sampling (SRS). We obtain the variances of the imputed URSS, and the expected values of the variance estimators. We also study the problem of quantile estimation using an imputed URSS and propose a hybrid method based on the bootstrap and imputation of URSS data. We apply our results to estimate the mean and quantiles of the mercury in contaminated fish under perfect and imperfect URSS.