On the estimation of the asymptotic variance of the rank estimators for the location parameter from a sample of random size

We obtain conditions for asymptotic normality of the estimate of asymptotic variance of rank estimators for the location parameter. The size of the sample is assumed ro be random and to depend on the sample values. We consider applications of the result obtained to sequential estimation of confidence intervals.Translated fromTeoriya Sluchainykh Protsessov, Vol. 15, pp. 97–102, 1987.     

Robust estimation of the Pickands dependence function under random right censoring

We consider robust nonparametric estimation of the Pickands dependence function under random right censoring. The estimator is obtained by applying the minimum density power divergence criterion to properly transformed bivariate observations. The asymptotic properties are investigated by making use of results for Kaplan–Meier integrals. We investigate the finite sample properties of the proposed estimator with a simulation experiment and illustrate its practical applicability on a dataset of insurance indemnity losses.     

Clustering of high values in random fields

The asymptotic results that underlie applications of extreme random fields often assume that the variables are located on a regular discrete grid, identified with \(\mathbb {Z}^{2}\), and that they satisfy stationarity and isotropy conditions. Here we extend the existing theory, concerning the asymptotic behavior of the maximum and the extremal index, to non-stationary and anisotropic random fields, defined over discrete subsets of \(\mathbb {R}^{2}\). We show that, under a suitable coordinatewise mixing condition, the maximum may be regarded as the maximum of an approximately independent sequence of submaxima, although there may be high local dependence leading to clustering of high values. Under restrictions on the local path behavior of high values, criteria are given for the existence and value of the spatial extremal index which plays a key role in determining the cluster sizes and quantifying the strength of dependence between exceedances of high levels. The general theory is applied to the class of max-stable random fields, for which the extremal index is obtained as a function of well-known tail dependence measures found in the literature, leading to a simple estimation method for this parameter. The results are illustrated with non-stationary Gaussian and 1-dependent random fields. For the latter, a simulation and estimation study is performed.     

On the Bahadur representation of sample quantiles for sequences of φ-mixing random variables

The object of the present investigation is to show that the elegant asymptotic almost-sure representation of a sample quantile for independent and identically distributed random variables, established by Bahadur [1] holds for a stationary sequence of φ-mixing random variables. Two different orders of the remainder term, under different φ-mixing conditions, are obtained and used for proving two functional central limit theorems for sample quantiles. It is also shown that the law of iterated logarithm holds for quantiles in stationary φ-mixing processes.     

Spatially homogeneous random evolutions

Spatially homogeneous random evolutions arise in the study of the growth of a population in a spatially homogeneous random environment. The random evolution is obtained as the solution of a bilinear stochastic evolution equation. The main results are concerned with the asymptotic behavior of the solution for large times. In particular, conditions for the existence of a stationary random field are established. Furthermore space-time renormalization limit theorems are obtained which lead to either Gaussian or non-Gaussian generalized processes depending on the case under consideration.     

Some large deviation results for sparse random graphs

Summary. We obtain a large deviation principle (LDP) for the relative size of the largest connected component in a random graph with small edge probability. The rate function, which is not convex in general, is determined explicitly using a new technique. The proof yields an asymptotic formula for the probability that the random graph is connected. We also present an LDP and related result for the number of isolated vertices. Here we make use of a simple but apparently unknown characterisation, which is obtained by embedding the random graph in a random directed graph. The results demonstrate that, at this scaling, the properties `connected' and `contains no isolated vertices' are not asymptotically equivalent. (At the threshold probability they are asymptotically equivalent.) Received: 14 November 1996 / In revised form: 15 August 1997     

Limit theory for the empirical extremogram of random fields

Regularly varying stochastic processes are able to model extremal dependence between process values at locations in random fields. We investigate the empirical extremogram as an estimator of dependence in the extremes. We provide conditions to ensure asymptotic normality of the empirical extremogram centred by a pre-asymptotic version. The proof relies on a CLT for exceedance variables. For max-stable processes with Fréchet margins we provide conditions such that the empirical extremogram centred by its true version is asymptotically normal. The results of this paper apply to a variety of spatial and space–time processes, and to time series models. We apply our results to max-moving average processes and Brown–Resnick processes.     

Linear and sub-linear growth and the CLT for hitting times of a random walk in random environment on a strip

The main goal of this work is to study the asymptotic behaviour of hitting times of a random walk (RW) in a quenched random environment (RE) on a strip. We introduce enlarged random environments in which the traditional hitting time can be presented as a sum of independent random variables whose distribution functions form a stationary random sequence. This allows us to obtain conditions (stated in terms of properties of random environments) for a linear growth of hitting times of relevant random walks. In some important cases (e.g. independent random environments) these conditions are also necessary for this type of behaviour. We also prove the quenched Central Limit Theorem (CLT) for hitting times in the general ergodic setting. A particular feature of these (ballistic) laws in random environment is that, whenever they hold under standard normalization, the convergence is a convergence with a speed. The latter is due to certain properties of moments of hitting times which are also studied in this paper. The asymptotic properties of the position of the walk are stated but are not proved in this work since this has been done in Goldhseid (Probab. Theory Relat. Fields 139(1):41–64, 2007).      

Extreme value copula estimation based on block maxima of a multivariate stationary time series

The core of the classical block maxima method consists of fitting an extreme value distribution to a sample of maxima over blocks extracted from an underlying series. In asymptotic theory, it is usually postulated that the block maxima are an independent random sample of an extreme value distribution. In practice however, block sizes are finite, so that the extreme value postulate will only hold approximately. A more accurate asymptotic framework is that of a triangular array of block maxima, the block size depending on the size of the underlying sample in such a way that both the block size and the number of blocks within that sample tend to infinity. The copula of the vector of componentwise maxima in a block is assumed to converge to a limit, which, under mild conditions, is then necessarily an extreme value copula. Under this setting and for absolutely regular stationary sequences, the empirical copula of the sample of vectors of block maxima is shown to be a consistent and asymptotically normal estimator for the limiting extreme value copula. Moreover, the empirical copula serves as a basis for rank-based, nonparametric estimation of the Pickands dependence function of the extreme value copula. The results are illustrated by theoretical examples and a Monte Carlo simulation study.     

A central limit theorem for random sums of random variables

Anscombe (1952) (also see Chung (1974)) has developed a central limit theoremof random sums of independent and identically distributed random variables. Applicability of this theorem in practice, however, is limited since the normalization requires random factors. In this paper we establish sufficient conditions under which the central limit theorem holds when such random factors are replaced by the underlying asymptotic mean and standard ddeviation. An application of this result in the context of shock models is also given.     

Asymptotic normality in random graphs with given vertex degrees

We consider random graphs with a given degree sequence and show, under weak technical conditions, asymptotic normality of the number of components isomorphic to a given tree, first for the random multigraph given by the configuration model and then, by a conditioning argument, for the simple uniform random graph with the given degree sequence. Such conditioning is standard for convergence in probability, but much less straightforward for convergence in distribution as here. The proof uses the method of moments, and is based on a new estimate of mixed cumulants in a case of weakly dependent variables. The result on small components is applied to give a new proof of a recent result by Barbour and Röllin on asymptotic normality of the size of the giant component in the random multigraph; moreover, we extend this to the random simple graph.     

On the strong law of large numbers for sequences of dependent random variables

New sufficient conditions for the applicability of the strong law of large numbers are established for sequences of random variables without the independence conditions. Results on strong stability of sums of dependent random variables are also obtained. No particular type of dependence between random variables of a sequence is assumed. Only conditions related to moments of random variables and their sums are used. It is shown that the results obtained are unimprovable in certain sense. These results are generalizations of some results of N. Etemadi proved under more restrictive conditions.     

On the deviation between the distributions of sums and maximum sums of IID random vectors

Summary For a sequence of independent and identically distributed random vectors, with finite moment of order less than or equal to the second, the rate at which the deviation between the distribution functions of the vectors of partial sums and maximums of partial sums is obtained both when the sample size is fixed and when it is random, satisfying certain regularity conditions. When the second moments exist the rate is of ordern ^−1/4 (in the fixed sample size case). Two applications are given, first, we compliment some recent work of Ahmad (1979,J. Multivariate Anal.,9, 214–222) on rates of convergence for the vector of maximum sums and second, we obtain rates of convergence of the concentration functions of maximum sums for both the fixed and random sample size cases.     

A weakly supercritical mode in a branching random walk

The case of weakly supercritical branching random walks is considered. A theorem on asymptotic behavior of the eigenvalue of the operator defining the process is obtained for this case. Analogues of the theorems on asymptotic behavior of the Green function under large deviations of a branching random walk and asymptotic behavior of the spread front of population of particles are established for the case of a simple symmetric branching random walk over a many-dimensional lattice. The constants for these theorems are exactly determined in terms of parameters of walking and branching.     

The almost equivalence of pairwise and mutual independence and the duality with exchangeability

For a large collection of random variables in an ideal setting, pairwise independence is shown to be almost equivalent to mutual independence. An asymptotic interpretation of this fact shows the equivalence of asymptotic pairwise independence and asymptotic mutual independence for a triangular array (or a sequence) of random variables. Similar equivalence is also presented for uncorrelatedness and orthogonality as well as for the constancy of joint moment functions and exchangeability. General unification of multiplicative properties for random variables are obtained. The duality between independence and exchangeability is established through the random variables and sample functions in a process. Implications in other areas are also discussed, which include a justification for the use of mutually independent random variables derived from sequential draws where the underlying population only satisfies a version of weak dependence. Macroscopic stability of some mass phenomena in economics is also characterized via almost mutual independence. It is also pointed out that the unit interval can be used to index random variables in the ideal setting, provided that it is endowed together with some sample space a suitable larger measure structure. Received: 16 April 1997 / Revised version: 18 May 1998     

Chung type strong laws for arrays of random elements and bootstrapping

Let {X_nk } be be an array of rowwise independent random elements in a separable Banach space. Chung type strong laws of large numbers are obtained under various moment conditions on the random elements and geometric type p, 1≤p≤2, conditions on the Banach space. Comparisons with existing results for arrays of random elements are provided to illustrate the strength of these results. The results can be directly applied to show the asymptotic validity of the bootstrap mean and variance for random functions     

On testing equality of pairwise rank correlations in a multivariate random vector

Spearman’s rank-correlation coefficient (also called Spearman’s rho) represents one of the best-known measures to quantify the degree of dependence between two random variables. As a copula-based dependence measure, it is invariant with respect to the distribution’s univariate marginal distribution functions. In this paper, we consider statistical tests for the hypothesis that all pairwise Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients in a multivariate random vector are equal. The tests are nonparametric and their asymptotic distributions are derived based on the asymptotic behavior of the empirical copula process. Only weak assumptions on the distribution function, such as continuity of the marginal distributions and continuous partial differentiability of the copula, are required for obtaining the results. A nonparametric bootstrap method is suggested for either estimating unknown parameters of the test statistics or for determining the associated critical values. We present a simulation study in order to investigate the power of the proposed tests. The results are compared to a classical parametric test for equal pairwise Pearson’s correlation coefficients in a multivariate random vector. The general setting also allows the derivation of a test for stochastic independence based on Spearman’s rho.     

Multi-operator scaling random fields

In this paper, we define and study a new class of random fields called harmonizable multi-operator scaling stable random fields. These fields satisfy a local asymptotic operator scaling property which generalizes both the local asymptotic self-similarity property and the operator scaling property. Actually, they locally look like operator scaling random fields, whose order is allowed to vary along the sample paths. We also give an upper bound of their modulus of continuity. Their pointwise Hölder exponents may also vary with the position x and their anisotropic behavior is driven by a matrix which may also depend on x.     

Strong large deviations for arbitrary sequences of random variables

We establish strong large deviation results for an arbitrary sequence of random variables under some assumptions on the normalized cumulant generating function. In other words, we give asymptotic expansions for the tail probabilities of the same kind as those obtained by Bahadur and Rao (Ann. Math. Stat. 31:1015–1027, 1960) for the sample mean. We consider both the case where the random variables are absolutely continuous and the case where they are lattice-valued. Our proofs make use of arguments of Chaganty and Sethuraman (Ann. Probab. 21:1671–1690, 1993) who also obtained strong large deviation results and local limit theorems. We illustrate our results with the kernel density estimator, the sample variance, the Wilcoxon signed-rank statistic and the Kendall tau statistic.     

Consistency and asymptotic normality of the maximum quasi-likelihood estimator in quasi-likelihood nonlinear models with random regressors

This paper proposes some regularity conditions, which result in the existence, strong consistency and asymptotic normality of maximum quasi-likelihood estimator （MQLE） in quasi-likelihood nonlinear models （QLNM） with random regressors. The asymptotic results of generalized linear models （GLM） with random regressors are generalized to QLNM with random regressors.