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Asymptotic Theory and the Foundations of Statistics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

N. Reid*
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics University of Toronto Toronto, ON M5S 3G3, e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Statistics in the 20th century has been enlivened by a passionate, occasionally bitter, and still vibrant debate on the foundations of statistics and in particular on Bayesian vs. frequentist approaches to inference. In 1975 D. V. Lindley predicted a Bayesian 21st century for statistics. This prediction has often been discussed since, but there is still no consensus on the probability of its correctness. Recent developments in the asymptotic theory of statistics are, surprisingly, shedding new light on this debate, and may have the potential to provide a common middle ground.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Mathematical Society 1997

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