A wide class of estimators of the residual variance in nonparametric regression is considered, namely those that are quadratic in the data, unbiased for linear regression, and always nonnegative. The minimax mean squared error estimator over a natural class of regression functions is derived. This optimal estimator has an interesting structure and is closely related to a minimax estimator of the regression curve itself.
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Buckley et al. (1988) studied this question.