Hodges' estimator

In statistics, Hodges' estimator (or the Hodges–Le Cam estimator), named for Joseph Hodges, is a famous counterexample of an estimator which is "superefficient", i.e. it attains smaller asymptotic variance than regular efficient estimators. The existence of such a counterexample is the reason for the introduction of the notion of regular estimators.

Hodges' estimator improves upon a regular estimator at a single point. In general, any superefficient estimator may surpass a regular estimator at most on a set of Lebesgue measure zero.

Although Hodges discovered the estimator he never published it; the first publication was in the doctoral thesis of Lucien Le Cam.