EMPIRICAL BAYES ESTIMATION OF RESIDUAL SURVIVAL FUNCTION AT AGE

The paper considers nonparametric empirical Bayes estimation of residual survival function at age t using a Dirichlet process prior V(a). Empirical Bayes estimators are proposed for the case where both the function ${\alpha}$(0, $\chi$] and the size a(R$\^$+/) are unknown. It is shown that the proposed empirical Bayes estimators are asymptotically optimal at a rate n$\^$-1/, where n is the number of past data available for the present estimation problem. Therefore, the result of Lahiri and Park (1988) in which a(R$\^$+/) is assumed to be known and a rate n$\^$-1/ is achieved, is extended to a(R$\^$+/) unknown case.