Editing Average absolute deviation (section)

== Estimation ==
{{Expand section|date=March 2009}}
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The mean absolute deviation of a sample is a [[biased estimator]] of the mean absolute deviation of the population.
In order for the absolute deviation to be an unbiased estimator, the expected value (average) of all the sample absolute deviations must equal the population absolute deviation. However, it does not. For the population 1,2,3 both the population absolute deviation about the median and the population absolute deviation about the mean are 2/3. The average of all the sample absolute deviations about the mean of size 3 that can be drawn from the population is 44/81, while the average of all the sample absolute deviations about the median is 4/9. Therefore, the absolute deviation is a biased estimator.

However, this argument is based on the notion of mean-unbiasedness. Each measure of location has its own form of unbiasedness (see entry on [[biased estimator]]). The relevant form of unbiasedness here is median unbiasedness.
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