Parameter Estimation from Censored Samples using the Expectation-Maximization Algorithm

This paper deals with parameter estimation when the data are randomly right censored. The maximum likelihood estimates from censored samples are obtained by using the expectation-maximization (EM) and Monte Carlo EM (MCEM) algorithms. We introduce the concept of the EM and MCEM algorithms and develop parameter estimation methods for a variety of distributions such as normal, Laplace and Rayleigh distributions. These proposed methods are illustrated with three examples.