Missing Observations: A Simultaneous Approach versus Interpolation by Related Series

The simultaneous estimation of missing obseroations with the parameters of a model is compared to separately interpolating existing data by application of related series to estimate missing obseroations prior to estimation of model param­ eters. Missing obseroations are simulated on a com­ plete time series. The basis of the comparison is the deviations between estimates of model param­ eters when no obseroations are missing and esti­ mates of the same model parameters when the simulated missing obseroations are estimated. No support for favoring the simultaneous approach over the two-step interpolation approach is found.