Sharper asset ranking from total drawdown durations

The total duration of drawdowns is shown to provide a moment-free, unbiased, efficient and robust estimator of Sharpe ratios both for Gaussian and heavy-tailed price returns. We then use this quantity to infer an analytic expression of the bias of moment-based Sharpe ratio estimators as a function of the return distribution tail exponent. The heterogeneity of tail exponents at any given time among assets implies that our new method yields significantly different asset rankings than those of moment-based methods, especially in periods large volatility. This is fully confirmed by using 20 years of historical data on 3449 liquid US equities.     

Properties of estimators of baseline hazard functions in a semiparametric cure model

We consider a semiparametric cure model combining the Cox model with the logistic model. There are the two distinct methods for estimating the nonparametric baseline hazard function of the model; one is based on a pseudo partial likelihood and the other is to use an EM algorithm. In this paper, we discuss the consistency and the asymptotic normality of the estimators from the two methods. Then, we show that the estimator from the pseudo partial likelihood can be characterized by the (forward) Volterra integral equation, and the estimator from the EM algorithm by the Fredholm integral equation. These characterizations reveal differences in the properties between the estimators from the two methods. In addition, a simulation study is performed to numerically confirm the results in several finite samples.     

The a Posteriori Error Estimator of SDG Method for Variable Coefficients Time-Harmonic Maxwell's Equations

In this paper, we study the a posteriori error estimator of SDG method for variable coefficients time-harmonic Maxwell's equations. We propose two a posteriori error estimators, one is the recovery-type estimator, and the other is the residual-type estimator. We first propose the curl-recovery method for the staggered discontinuous Galerkin method (SDGM), and based on the super-convergence result of the postprocessed solution, an asymptotically exact error estimator is constructed. The residual-type a posteriori error estimator is also proposed, and it's reliability and effectiveness are proved for variable coefficients time-harmonic Maxwell's equations. The efficiency and robustness of the proposed estimators is demonstrated by the numerical experiments.     

Multivariate density estimation using dimension reducing information and tail flattening transformations for truncated or censored data

This paper introduces a multivariate density estimator for truncated and censored data with special emphasis on extreme values based on survival analysis. A local constant density estimator is considered. We extend this estimator by means of tail flattening transformation, dimension reducing prior knowledge and a combination of both. The asymptotic theory is derived for the proposed estimators. It shows that the extensions might improve the performance of the density estimator when the transformation and the prior knowledge is not too far away from the true distribution. A simulation study shows that the density estimator based on tail flattening transformation and prior knowledge substantially outperforms the one without prior knowledge, and therefore confirms the asymptotic results. The proposed estimators are illustrated and compared in a data study of fire insurance claims.     

Incorporating big microdata in life table construction: A hypothesis-free estimator

The IT revolution, now more than ever, offers a cheaper and faster way to collect, store, transmit and process data. Detailed microdata of dates of death, migration and birth are already becoming available for general populations. In this paper, we develop within the family of period-based estimators a new, assumption-free estimator for constructing life tables. The estimator proposed exploits all the detailed data available and is free of the theoretical inconsistencies that the estimators currently used by most official statistical agencies have. We compute the proposed estimator for a real database and test the suitability of the hypotheses on which the estimators used so far rely. The hypothesis of uniform distribution of birthdays is proven to be inadequate and the one having the largest impact on the estimated probabilities. Given its influence on public pension systems and life insurances, we advocate for adopting the more efficient approaches proposed in this paper.     

Stein–type shrinkage quantile estimation

The simultaneous asymptotic estimation theory of quantiles is considered for an arbitrary population. The Stein–type estimator and its positive version are considered. The relative merits of the proposed estimators are compared with those of the usual estimator using asymptotic quadratic distributional risk those of the usual estimator using asymptotic quadratic distributional risk under local alternatives. It is shown that both proposed estimators are asymptotically superior to the classical estimator. Further, it is demonstrated that the Stein-type estimator is dominated by its positive part     

Comparisons among some estimators in misspecified linear models with multicollinearity

In this paper we deal with comparisons among several estimators available in situations of multicollinearity (e.g., the r-k class estimator proposed by Baye and Parker, the ordinary ridge regression (ORR) estimator, the principal components regression (PCR) estimator and also the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimator) for a misspecified linear model where misspecification is due to omission of some relevant explanatory variables. These comparisons are made in terms of the mean square error (mse) of the estimators of regression coefficients as well as of the predictor of the conditional mean of the dependent variable. It is found that under the same conditions as in the true model, the superiority of the r-k class estimator over the ORR, PCR and OLS estimators and those of the ORR and PCR estimators over the OLS estimator remain unchanged in the misspecified model. Only in the case of comparison between the ORR and PCR estimators, no definite conclusion regarding the mse dominance of one over the other in the misspecified model can be drawn.     

Estimating population proportions in the presence of missing data

This paper discusses the estimation of a population proportion in the presence of missing data and using auxiliary information at the estimation stage. A general class of estimators, which make efficient use of the available information, are proposed. Some theoretical properties of the proposed estimators are analyzed, and they allow us to find the optimal value for the proposed class in the sense of minimal variance. The optimal estimator is thus more efficient than the customary estimator. Results derived from a simulation study indicate that the proposed optimal estimator gives desirable results in comparison to alternative estimators.     

Probability density estimation with surrogate data and validation sample

The probability density estimation problem with surrogate data and validation sample is considered. A regression calibration kernel density estimator is defined to incorporate the information contained in both surrogate variates and validation sample. Also, we define two weighted estimators which have less asymptotic variances but have bigger biases than the regression calibration kernel density estimator. All the proposed estimators are proved to be asymptotically normal. And the asymptotic representations for the mean squared error and mean integrated square error of the proposed estimators are established, respectively. A simulation study is conducted to compare the finite sample behaviors of the proposed estimators.     

基于价格极值构建有效价差的广义矩估计

基于Corwin和Schultz(2012)提出的有效价差的High-Low估计,结合价格极值信息得到新的一阶矩条件,构造了有效价差的广义矩估计。随后通过随机数值模拟比较了基于价格极值的广义矩估计(GMM)与Roll的协方差估计、Bayes估计以及Corwin和Schultz的High-Low估计在多种不同状态下的估计精度。数值模拟结果显示,无论在交易连续的理想状态下还是交易不连续且波动率相对不高的非理想状态下,GMM估计的精度均高于其余三种估计;基于我国股票市场的实例分析,也表明GMM估计的估计精度优于其余三种估计。因此,GMM估计为度量金融资产的交易成本提供了一种有效方法。