  Estimator selection has become a crucial issue in non parametric estimation.
Two widely used methods are penalized empirical risk minimization (such as
penalized log-likelihood estimation) or pairwise comparison (such as Lepski's
method). Our aim in this paper is twofold. First we explain some general ideas
about the calibration issue of estimator selection methods. We review some
known results, putting the emphasis on the concept of minimal penalty which is
helpful to design data-driven selection criteria. Secondly we present a new
method for bandwidth selection within the framework of kernel density density
estimation which is in some sense intermediate between these two main methods
mentioned above. We provide some theoretical results which lead to some fully
data-driven selection strategy.
