Estimation with Equicorrelated Normal Samples
You have $n$ observations $X_1, \ldots, X_n$ drawn from a $N(\mu, 1)$ distribution, but they are not independent -- every pair has the same correlation $r$, so the covariance matrix is:
$\Sigma = (1-r)I + r\mathbf{1}\mathbf{1}^\top$
where $\mathbf{1}$ is the all-ones vector.
(a) How would you estimate $\mu$? Is the sample mean $\bar{X}$ still the best linear unbiased estimator?
(b) Derive the test statistic for testing $H_0: \mu = \mu_0$ against $H_1: \mu \neq \mu_0$. How does correlation affect the power of this test?
(c) What is the valid range of $r$ for this covariance structure to be well-defined?
Open the full interactive solver, hints, and worked solution →