The Prague Symposia on Asymptotic Statistics represent a twenty years' tradi tion of contacts between Czech mathematical statisticians and the conference partic ipants. Both, as the organizers hope, return from the Symposia to their work with fresh ideas and new information. The Fifth Prague Symposium was held from September 4 to September 9,1993 at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University. It was sponsored by the Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability, the Czech Statistical the Czech Society of Actuaries, Ceska Pojistovna-Insurance and Reinsur...