The interaction of various ideas from different researchers provides a main impetus to mathematical prosress. An important way to make communication possible is through international conferences on more or less spezialized topics~ The existence of several centers for research in probabil ity and statistics in the eastern part of central Europe - somewhat vaguely described as the Pannonian area - led to the idea of organizing Pannonian Symposia on Mathematical Statistics (PS~1S). The second such symposium was held at Bad Tatzmannsdorf, Burgenland (Austria), from 14 to 20 June 1981. About 100 researchers from 13 countries participated in that event and about 70 papers were delivered. Most of the papers dealt with one of the following topics: nonparametric estimation theory, asymptotic theory of estimation, invariance principles, limit theorems and aoplications. Full versions of selected papers, all presenting new results are included in this volume.The editors take this opportunity to thank the following institutions for their assistance in making the conference possible: the Provincial Government of Burgenland, the Austrian Ministry for Research and Science, the Burgenland Chamber of Commerce, the Control Data Corporation, the Austrian Society for Statistics and Informatics, the Landes- hypothekenbank Burgenland, the Volksbank Oberwart, and the Community and Kurbad AG of Bad Tatzmannsdorf. We are also greatly indebted to all those persons who helped in editing this volume and in particular to the vii W. Grossmann et al. reds.), Probability and Statistical Inference, vii-viii.
