The ridge regression-type (Hoerl and Kennard, 1970) and Liu-type (Liu, 1993) estimators are consistently attractive shrinkage methods to reduce the effects of multicollinearity for both linear and nonlinear regression models. This paper proposes a new estimator to solve the multicollinearity problem for the linear regression model. Theory and simulation results show that, under some conditions, it performs better than both Liu and ridge regression estimators in the smaller MSE sense. Two real-life (chemical and economic) data are analyzed to illustrate the findings of the paper.

The Linear regression model is one of the most widely used models in different fields of study. The most popularly used estimation technique is the ordinary least squares estimator. The technique becomes unstable and gives misleading result in the presence of multicollinearity. The ridge regression estimator has been widely accepted as an alternative method to combat the problem of multicollinearity. In this study, a modified ridge‐type estimator is suggested by modifying the ridge regression estimator. A Monte Carlo simulation study and real‐life application were conducted to compare the performance of this estimator and some other existing estimators. The results of both simulation study and real‐life application show that the proposed estimator outperforms other competing estimator.

The coronavirus outbreak is the most notable world crisis since the Second World War. The pandemic that originated from Wuhan, China in late 2019 has affected all the nations of the world and triggered a global economic crisis whose impact will be felt for years to come. This necessitates the need to monitor and predict COVID-19 prevalence for adequate control. The linear regression models are prominent tools in predicting the impact of certain factors on COVID-19 outbreak and taking the necessary measures to respond to this crisis. The data was extracted from the NCDC website and spanned from March 31, 2020 to May 29, 2020. In this study, we adopted the ordinary least squares estimator to measure the impact of travelling history and contacts on the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria and made a prediction. The model was conducted before and after travel restriction was enforced by the Federal government of Nigeria. The fitted model fitted well to the dataset and was free of any violation based on the diagnostic checks conducted. The results show that the government made a right decision in enforcing travelling restriction because we observed that travelling history and contacts made increases the chances of people being infected with COVID-19 by 85% and 88% respectively. This prediction of COVID-19 shows that the government should ensure that most travelling agency should have better precautions and preparations in place before re-opening.

The maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) suffers from the instability problem in the presence of multicollinearity for a Poisson regression model (PRM). In this study, we propose a new estimator with some biasing parameters to estimate the regression coefficients for the PRM when there is multicollinearity problem. Some simulation experiments are conducted to compare the estimators' performance by using the mean squared error (MSE) criterion. For illustration purposes, aircraft damage data has been analyzed. The simulation results and the real-life application evidenced that the proposed estimator performs better than the rest of the estimators.

The literature has shown that ordinary least squares estimator (OLSE) is not best when the explanatory variables are related, that is, when multicollinearity is present. This estimator becomes unstable and gives a misleading conclusion. In this study, a modified new two-parameter estimator based on prior information for the vector of parameters is proposed to circumvent the problem of multicollinearity. This new estimator includes the special cases of the ordinary least squares estimator (OLSE), the ridge estimator (RRE), the Liu estimator (LE), the modified ridge estimator (MRE), and the modified Liu estimator (MLE). Furthermore, the superiority of the new estimator over OLSE, RRE, LE, MRE, MLE, and the two-parameter estimator proposed by Ozkale and Kaciranlar (2007) was obtained by using the mean squared error matrix criterion. In conclusion, a numerical example and a simulation study were conducted to illustrate the theoretical results.