| Abstract: | This article deals with the problem of local sensitivity analysis, that is, how sensitive are the results of a statistical analysis to changes in the data? A general methodology of sensitivity analysis is applied to some statistical problems. The proposed methods are applicable to any statistical problem that can be expressed as an optimization problem or that involves solving a system of equations. As some particular examples, the methodology is applied to the maximum likelihood method, the standard and constrained methods of moments and the standard and constrained probability weighted moments methods. Unlike the standard method of moments, the constrained method of moments ensures that the obtained estimates are always consistent with the data. Closed analytical formulas for the calculation of these local sensitivities are derived. The obtained sensitivities include: (a) the objective function sensitivities to data points and (b) the sensitivities of the estimated parameters to data points. The derived formulas for the sensitivities are based on recent results in the area of mathematical programming. Several examples of parameter estimation problems are used to illustrate the methodology. |
