# Is the min function ever an unbiased estimator for the mean?

Given n iid variables X1 to Xn with an unknown probability distribution, the sample average is an unbiased estimator for the mean of the distribution. Is there some non-trivial probability distribution for which min(X1,...,Xn) is an unbiased estimator? (Non-trivial meaning the variables can have more than one potential value).

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What do you consider trivial? For instance, any distribution that's nonzero only on a set of measure zero will have this property. –  TerronaBell Nov 13 '09 at 0:07
@fuzzytron: Your comment makes little sense to me. If you want to use the language of distributions, clearly the intended meaning is a distribution (i.e., a probability measure on $\mathbb{R}$) whose support is not a point. Anyway, the question seems too easy to me, it looks almost like homework (hint: compare the two suggested estimators). –  Harald Hanche-Olsen Nov 13 '09 at 1:33
The homework was to find out whether the min is biased for an exponential distribution. It was, of course. This is me being curious if there is a distribution where it's not biased. –  Claudiu Nov 13 '09 at 2:02
Sorry - was far too sloppy there. Consider a distribution on the unit interval that is one everywhere except for on a set of measure zero. This (probability) distribution satisfies the criteria above, except that you may consider it "trivial." –  TerronaBell Nov 13 '09 at 15:32

No. The minimum as always smaller than or equal to the arithmetic mean, and is strictly smaller with positive probability (i.e., when not all the $X_i$ have the same value). Hence its expected value is strictly smaller than that of the mean.