Projectors and linear estimation in general linear models

The paper gives a self-contained account of minimum disper­sion linear unbiased estimation of the expectation vector in a linear model with the dispersion matrix belonging to some, rather arbitrary, set of nonnegative definite matrices. The approach to linear estimation in general linear models recommended here is a direct generalization of some ideas and results presented by Rao (1973, 19 74) for the case of a general Gauss-Markov model A new insight into the nature of some estimation problems originaly arising in the context of a general Gauss-Markov model as well as the correspondence of results known in the literature to those obtained in the present paper for general linear models are also given. As preliminary results the theory of projectors defined by Rao (1973) is extended.