Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 35 6 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Put . A binary event increment has conditional variance . Since , its squared mean is of second order, givingTreating the predictable risk set size as known given the history, the Nelson–Aalen estimator increment therefore has first-order varianceSubstitute for to obtain the estimated increment variance . Summing these estimated predictable variances gives the usual Nelson–Aalen variance estimator:The martingale has orthogonal increments, which justifies accumulating the predictable variances of the estimation error. This is an estimated sampling variance on the observed at-risk range, not a claim of exact finite-sample unbiasedness after the risk set becomes empty. For multiple events at an event time the usual extension replaces the numerator 1 by the event count.