The use of spacings in the estimation of a scale parameter

Linear functions on spacings—instead of linear functions on order statistics—are considered, in order to simplify the form of best linear unbiased estimators (BLUEs) and best linear invariant estimators (BLIEs) for the scale parameter in the classical location-scale family. Also, a sufficient condition for the non-negativity of the scale estimator is presented and, moreover, necessary and sufficient conditions for the BLUE (and the BLIE) to be a constant multiple of the sample range are derived. Finally, a modification of this approach is applied in order to simplify the derivations of both the location and the scale estimators in the Uniform Type-II Censored model.