Non-parametric estimation of the population size using the empirical probability generating function

© 2018 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Several non-parametric methods have been proposed in the literature to estimate the number, or equivalently, the probability of zero for zero-truncated count distributions. Some of the most remarkable and commonly used approaches are Chao’s estimator [71]-[72], Zelterman’s estimator [306], the firstand second-order jackknife estimators [65] and Turing’s estimator [131]. Some of them have been described in Chapter 1, Sections 1.3 and 1.4. There are also many extensions, bias corrections and modifications of these estimators, some of them also described in Chapter 1.