Addendum to “An extension of an inequality of Hoeffding to unbounded random variables”: The non-i.i.d. case

Let S _n = X ₁ + ⋯ + X _n be a sum of independent random variables such that 0 ⩽ X _k ⩽ 1 for all k. Write {ie237-01} and q = 1 − p. Let 0 < t < q. In our recent paper 3], we extended the inequality of Hoeffding (6], Theorem 1) {fx237-01} to the case where X _k are unbounded positive random variables. It was assumed that the means {ie237-02} of individual summands are known. In this addendum, we prove that the inequality still holds if only an upper bound for the mean {ie237-03} is known and that the i.i.d. case where {ie237-04} dominates the general non-i.i.d. case. Furthermore, we provide upper bounds expressed in terms of certain compound Poisson distributions. Such bounds can be more convenient in applications. Our inequalities reduce to the related Hoeffding inequalities if 0 ⩽ X _k ⩽ 1. Our conditions are X _k ⩾ 0 and {ie237-05}. In particular, X _k can have fat tails. We provide as well improvements comparable with the inequalities in Bentkus 2]. The independence of X _k can be replaced by super-martingale type assumptions. Our methods can be extended to prove counterparts of other inequalities in Hoeffding 6] and Bentkus The research was partially supported by the Lithuanian State Science and Studies Foundation, grant No T-25/08.