The variance of a linear combination of independent estimators using estimated weights

Abstract

Consider k independent unbiased estimators of a common parameter τ. Let t* be the linear combination of the k estimators with minimum variance, and let t∩ be any linear combination whose weights sum to unity and are independent of the k estimators. Then t∩ is unbiased for τ and the variance of t∩ depends only on the variance of t* and the mean squared error of the weights as estimates of the optimum weights.