A reduced new modified Weibull distribution

ABSTRACTThe author proposes a reduced version, with three parameters, of the new modified Weibull (NMW) distribution in order to avoid some estimation problems. The mathematical properties and maximum-likelihood estimation of the reduced version are studied. Four real data sets (complete and censored) are used to compare the flexibility of the reduced version versus the NMW distribution. It is shown that the reduced version has the same desirable properties of the NMW distribution in spite of having two less parameters. The NMW distribution did not provide a significantly better fit than the reduced version.