Small-Sample Bias of Point Estimators of the Odds Ratio from Matched Sets

The bias of several point estimators of the odds ratio arising from matched-pair data is investigated for small samples. Simple alternatives to the traditional maximum likelihood estimator are suggested, on both the original scale and the logarithm scale. In each case the suggested estimators possess a superior performance in terms of mean square error. Generalizations are given for 1:R matched data sets.