Editing Minimum-variance unbiased estimator (section)

{{Short description|Unbiased statistical estimator minimizing variance}}{{Refimprove|date=November 2009}}In [[statistics]] a '''minimum-variance unbiased estimator (MVUE)''' or '''uniformly minimum-variance unbiased estimator (UMVUE)''' is an [[Bias of an estimator|unbiased estimator]] that has lower variance than any other unbiased estimator for all possible values of the parameter.

For practical statistics problems, it is important to determine the MVUE if one exists, since less-than-optimal procedures would naturally be avoided, other things being equal. This has led to substantial development of statistical theory related to the problem of optimal estimation.

While combining the constraint of [[unbiasedness]] with the desirability metric of least [[variance]] leads to good results in most practical settings—making MVUE a natural starting point for a broad range of analyses—a targeted specification may perform better for a given problem; thus, MVUE is not always the best stopping point.