Double k-Class Estimators in Regression Models with Non-spherical Disturbances

In this paper, we consider a family of feasible generalised double k-class estimators in a linear regression model with non-spherical disturbances. We derive the large sample asymptotic distribution of the proposed family of estimators and compare its performance with the feasible generalized least squares and Stein-rule estimators using the mean squared error matrix and risk under quadratic loss criteria. A Monte-Carlo experiment investigates the finite sample behaviour of the proposed family of estimators.     

Bias correction in extreme value statistics with index around zero

Applying extreme value statistics in meteorology and environmental science requires accurate estimators on extreme value indices that can be around zero. Without having prior knowledge on the sign of the extreme value indices, the probability weighted moment (PWM) estimator is a favorable candidate. As most other estimators on the extreme value index, the PWM estimator bears an asymptotic bias. In this paper, we develop a bias correction procedure for the PWM estimator. Moreover, we provide bias-corrected PWM estimators for high quantiles and, when the extreme value index is negative, the endpoint of a distribution. The choice of k, the number of high order statistics used for estimation, is crucial in applications. The asymptotically unbiased PWM estimators allows the choice of higher level k, which results in a lower asymptotic variance. Moreover, since the bias-corrected PWM estimators can be applied for a wider range of k compared to the original PWM estimator, one gets more flexibility in choosing k for finite sample applications. All advantages become apparent in simulations and an environmental application on estimating “once per 10,000 years” still water level at Hoek van Holland, The Netherlands.     

On an estimator in T3-class of linear estimators in sampling with varying probabilities from a finite population

Summary Horvitz and Thompson [4] introduced three classes of linear estimators for estimation of population characteristics on the basis of a sample drawn with varying probabilities and without replacement. TheirT ₃-class of estimators does not admit a best unbiased estimator. In this paper, the variance and an unbiased estimate of variance for an estimator in T₃-class, which is proved to have several good properties by Godambe [2], [3], are derived for sampling with varying probabilities with or without replacement.     

A remark on the capitulation problem

We determine explicitly an infinite family of imaginary cyclic number fields k, such that the 2-class group of k is elementary with arbitrary large 2-rank and capitulates in an unramified quadratic extension K. The infinitely many number fields k and K have the same Hilbert 2-class field and an infinite Hilbert 2-class field tower.     

Generalized Levinson-Durbin sequences, binomial coefficients and autoregressive estimation

For a discrete time second-order stationary process, the Levinson-Durbin recursion is used to determine the coefficients of the best linear predictor of the observation at time k+1, given k previous observations, best in the sense of minimizing the mean square error. The coefficients determined by the recursion define a Levinson-Durbin sequence. We also define a generalized Levinson-Durbin sequence and note that binomial coefficients form a special case of a generalized Levinson-Durbin sequence. All generalized Levinson-Durbin sequences are shown to obey summation formulas which generalize formulas satisfied by binomial coefficients. Levinson-Durbin sequences arise in the construction of several autoregressive model coefficient estimators. The least squares autoregressive estimator does not give rise to a Levinson-Durbin sequence, but least squares fixed point processes, which yield least squares estimates of the coefficients unbiased to order 1/T, where T is the sample length, can be combined to construct a Levinson-Durbin sequence. By contrast, analogous fixed point processes arising from the Yule-Walker estimator do not combine to construct a Levinson-Durbin sequence, although the Yule-Walker estimator itself does determine a Levinson-Durbin sequence. The least squares and Yule-Walker fixed point processes are further studied when the mean of the process is a polynomial time trend that is estimated by least squares.     

Estimation of the tail index for lattice-valued sequences

If one applies the Hill, Pickands or Dekkers–Einmahl–de Haan estimators of the tail index of a distribution to data which are rounded off one often observes that these estimators oscillate strongly as a function of the number k of order statistics involved. We study this phenomenon in the case of a Pareto distribution. We provide formulas for the expected value and variance of the Hill estimator and give bounds on k when the central limit theorem is still applicable. We illustrate the theory by using simulated and real-life data.     

On near neighbour estimates of a multivariate density

A recent paper by Mack and Rosenblatt (J. Multivar. Anal.9 (1979), 1–15) has shown that near neighbour estimators of a density may perform more poorly than other kernel-type estimators, particularly for x values in the tail of a distribution. In order to overcome the difficulties discovered by Mack and Rosenblatt, a generalized type of near neighbour estimator is proposed. Here the window size, or bandwidth, is chosen as a function of near neighbour distances, rather than actually equal to one of the distances. Two forms for this function are suggested and it is proved that for large samples the resulting estimator does not suffer the drawbacks of the usual near neighbour estimator.     

Some properties of invariant polynomials with matrix arguments and their applications in econometrics

Summary Further properties are derived for a class of invariant polynomials with several matrix arguments which extend the zonal polynomials. Generalized Laguerre polynomials are defined, and used to obtain expansions of the sum of independent noncentral Wishart matrices and an associated generalized regression coefficient matrix. The latter includes thek-class estimator in econometrics.     

Minimum <Emphasis Type="Italic">Φ</Emphasis>-Divergence Estimator and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Φ</Emphasis>-Divergence Statistics in Generalized Linear Models with Binary Data

In this paper, we assume that the data are distributed according to a binomial distribution whose probabilities follow a generalized linear model. To fit the data the minimum φ-divergence estimator is studied as a generalization of the maximum likelihood estimator. We use the minimum φ-divergence estimator, which is the basis of some new statistics, for solving the problems of testing in a generalized linear model with binary data. A wide simulation study is carried out for studying the behavior of the new family of estimators as well as of the new family of test statistics. This work was partially supported by Grant MTM2006-06872 and UCM2006-910707.     

Reliability and covariance estimation of weighted k-out-of-n multi-state systems

In the literature of reliability engineering, reliability of the weighted k-out-of-n system can be calculated using component reliability based on the structure function. The calculation usually assumes that the true component reliability is completely known. However, this is not the case in practical applications. Instead, component reliability has to be estimated using empirical sample data. Uncertainty arises during this estimation process and propagates to the system level. This paper studies the propagation mechanism of estimation uncertainty through the universal generating function method. Equations of the complete solution including the unbiased system reliability estimator and the corresponding unbiased covariance estimator are derived. This is a unified approach. It can be applied to weighted k-out-of-n systems with multi-state components, to weighted k-out-of-n systems with binary components, and to simple series and parallel systems. It may also serve as building blocks to derive estimators of system reliability and uncertainty measures for more complicated systems.     

Estimation of central shapes of error distributions in linear regression problems

Consider a linear regression model subject to an error distribution which is symmetric about 0 and varies regularly at 0 with exponent ζ. We propose two estimators of ζ, which characterizes the central shape of the error distribution. Both methods are motivated by the well-known Hill estimator, which has been extensively studied in the related problem of estimating tail indices, but substitute reciprocals of small L _p residuals for the extreme order statistics in its original definition. The first method requires careful choices of p and the number k of smallest residuals employed for calculating the estimator. The second method is based on subsampling and works under less restrictive conditions on p and k. Both estimators are shown to be consistent for ζ and asymptotically normal. A simulation study is conducted to compare our proposed procedures with alternative estimates of ζ constructed using resampling methods designed for convergence rate estimation.     

The FEXP estimator for potentially non-stationary linear time series

We consider semiparametric fractional exponential (FEXP) estimators of the memory parameter d for a potentially non-stationary linear long-memory time series with additive polynomial trend. We use differencing to annihilate the polynomial trend, followed by tapering to handle the potential non-invertibility of the differenced series. We propose a method of pooling the tapered periodogram which leads to more efficient estimators of d than existing pooled, tapered estimators. We establish asymptotic normality of the tapered FEXP estimator in the Gaussian case with or without pooling. We establish asymptotic normality of the estimator in the linear case if pooling is used. Finally, we consider minimax rate-optimality and feasible nearly rate-optimal estimators in the Gaussian case.     

Robust statistical inference based on the C-divergence family

This paper describes a family of divergences, named herein as the C-divergence family, which is a generalized version of the power divergence family and also includes the density power divergence family as a particular member of this class. We explore the connection of this family with other divergence families and establish several characteristics of the corresponding minimum distance estimator including its asymptotic distribution under both discrete and continuous models; we also explore the use of the C-divergence family in parametric tests of hypothesis. We study the influence function of these minimum distance estimators, in both the first and second order, and indicate the possible limitations of the first-order influence function in this case. We also briefly study the breakdown results of the corresponding estimators. Some simulation results and real data examples demonstrate the small sample efficiency and robustness properties of the estimators.

     

Generalized variance estimators in the multivariate gamma models

It is already known that the uniformly minimum variance unbiased (UMVU) estimator of the generalized variance always exists for any natural exponential family. However, in practice, this estimator is often difficult to obtain. This paper provides explicit forms of the UMVU estimators for the bivariate and symmetric multivariate gamma models, which are diagonal quadratic exponential families. For the non-independent multivariate gamma models, it is shown that the UMVU and the maximum likelihood estimators are not proportional.      

A family of minimax estimators of a multivariate normal mean

Let X be a p-dimensional normal random vector with unknown mean vector θ and covariance σ²I. Let S/σ², independent of X, be chi-square with n degrees of freedom. Relative to the squared error loss, James and Stein (1961) have obtained an estimator which dominates the usual estimator X. Baranchik (1970) has extended James and Stein's results. We obtain a theorem which can provide a different family of minimax estimators containing James-Stein's estimator. Two interesting minimax estimators are presented in this paper.     

Imaginary quadratic fields with Cl2(k)?(2,2,2)

We characterize those imaginary quadratic number fields, k, with 2-class group of type (2,2,2) and with the 2-rank of the class group of its Hilbert 2-class field equal to 2. We then compute the length of the 2-class field tower of k.     

On Bayes and unbiased estimators of loss

We consider estimation of loss for generalized Bayes or pseudo-Bayes estimators of a multivariate normal mean vector, θ. In 3 and higher dimensions, the MLEX is UMVUE and minimax but is inadmissible. It is dominated by the James-Stein estimator and by many others. Johnstone (1988, On inadmissibility of some unbiased estimates of loss,Statistical Decision Theory and Related Topics, IV (eds. S. S. Gupta and J. O. Berger), Vol. 1, 361–379, Springer, New York) considered the estimation of loss for the usual estimatorX and the James-Stein estimator. He found improvements over the Stein unbiased estimator of risk. In this paper, for a generalized Bayes point estimator of θ, we compare generalized Bayes estimators to unbiased estimators of loss. We find, somewhat surprisingly, that the unbiased estimator often dominates the corresponding generalized Bayes estimator of loss for priors which give minimax estimators in the original point estimation problem. In particular, we give a class of priors for which the generalized Bayes estimator of θ is admissible and minimax but for which the unbiased estimator of loss dominates the generalized Bayes estimator of loss. We also give a general inadmissibility result for a generalized Bayes estimator of loss. Research supported by NSF Grant DMS-97-04524.     

A family of dominating minimax estimators of a multivariate normal mean

Let X have a p-variate normal distribution with mean vector θ and identity covariance matrix I. In the squared error estimation of θ, Baranchik (1970) gives a wide family G of minimax estimators. In this paper, a subfamily C of dominating estimators in G is found such that for each estimator δ₁ in G not in C, there exists an estimator δ₂ in C which which dominates δ₁.     

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??In this paper, we construct a generalized spatial panel data model with two-way error components where the spatial correlation also exist in the individual effects. Based on the methods of the generalized moment estimate and the two-step least square estimate, we look for the best instrumental variable, fit generalized moments and the weighted matrix to discuss the estimator of the parameters, and prove the consistent of the estimators. Monte Carlo experiments show that the weighted generalized moment estimators are better than the unweighted generalized moment estimators, and the estimate effect of feasible generalized two stages least squares estimators is good.     

Efficiency of a Liu-type estimator in semiparametric regression models

In this paper we consider the semiparametric regression model, y=Xβ+f+ε. Recently, Hu [11] proposed ridge regression estimator in a semiparametric regression model. We introduce a Liu-type (combined ridge-Stein) estimator (LTE) in a semiparametric regression model. Firstly, Liu-type estimators of both β and f are attained without a restrained design matrix. Secondly, the LTE estimator of β is compared with the two-step estimator in terms of the mean square error. We describe the almost unbiased Liu-type estimator in semiparametric regression models. The almost unbiased Liu-type estimator is compared with the Liu-type estimator in terms of the mean squared error matrix. A numerical example is provided to show the performance of the estimators.