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1 vote
3 answers
162 views

Upper Bound for $\mathbb{E}\left[\max_{j \in \mathcal{N}} h_{j}\right]$

Assume $\{h_j\}_{j\in \mathcal{N}}$ are independent Gamma random variables, each with potentially different distributions and parameters. I am looking for an upper bound for $\mathbb{E}\left[\max_{j \...
Lee White's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
56 views

How to study the convergence of the sample mode for arbitrary probability spaces

(This is not the problem I actually care about, but an analogy with similar issues to the problem I'm actually considering.) Consider a probability space with i.i.d. random variables $X_i$ producing ...
cgmil's user avatar
  • 277
2 votes
1 answer
170 views

Equivalence of minimizing trace and determinant over matrix quadratic form in multivariate regression

Consider the multivariate regression model $$Y = XB + E$$ where $Y$ is $n \times p$ and corresponds to the dependent variables, $X$ is $n \times k$ and corresponds to the independent variables, $B$ is ...
respectableuser1's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
148 views

conjecture for general form of minimax estimator

I had previously posed an overly ambitious version of this conjecture here, Form of minimax estimator, which was quickly shot down by Václav Voráček (on twitter) and Iosif Pinelis (MO answer in the ...
Aryeh Kontorovich's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
341 views

Form of minimax estimator

Let $\Delta$ be the set of all probability distributions over $\mathbb{N}=\{1,2,\ldots\}$ and fix some $\mathcal{P}\subseteq\Delta$. Suppose additionally that $\Delta$ is endowed with some norm $||\...
Aryeh Kontorovich's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
940 views

Derivative of log-likelihood function for Gaussian distribution with parameterized variance

Suppose we have a parameter $\theta \in R^{n}$ that defines some noisy observation $z=\mu(\theta)+\eta, z\in R^{m}$ where the noise follows a Gaussian distribution whose covariance is a function of ...
JNL's user avatar
  • 75
7 votes
1 answer
569 views

Singular Fisher information matrix and existence of unbiased estimators

I'm doing some research into the Cramer-Rao bound for time of arrival localization and have come across a rather strange result: the FIM is singular, but there exists an unbiased estimator. My ...
JNL's user avatar
  • 75
2 votes
0 answers
87 views

A complex problem involving densities (likelihood functions) and optimization

Consider the following autoregressive process with normal errors: \begin{equation}\label{7YlUV4i8nuO}\tag{I} y_t = \phi y_{t-1}+ u_t, \quad u_t \overset{iid}{\sim} N(0,\sigma^2) \end{equation} We ...
PSE's user avatar
  • 13
2 votes
1 answer
143 views

DKW inequality for $L^1$-norm

Suppose that $X,X_1,X_2,X_3\dots$ is a sequence of $\mathbb{P}$-i.i.d. random variables supported in the interval $[0,1]$. Let $F$ be the cumulative distribution of $X$, i.e. $F(x):=\mathbb{P}[X \le x]...
Bob's user avatar
  • 123
1 vote
0 answers
34 views

Correlating two matrices $A,B$ with stochastic dependency structure imposed by cross-validation

Consider a labelled data set $$D = \{(x_1, y_1),...,(x_n, y_n)\} $$ on which we want to evaluate a machine learning algorithm using $k$-fold cross validation with $m$ different random seeds. This ...
Joker123's user avatar
  • 153
4 votes
1 answer
415 views

What journal(s) do you recommend for submitting a paper on a topic that spans information theory and estimation theory?

I've written a paper that a) demonstrates an equivalence between conditional complexity $K$($Y$|$X$) in information theory and the random component of an effect size estimate $r_{xy}$, and then b) ...
virtuolie's user avatar
  • 183
2 votes
0 answers
78 views

Distribution of unbiased estimator of covariance matrix with missing values

Initial setup Assuming $X_1, ..., X_n \in \mathbb{R}^m$ are iid, sampled from $\mathcal{N}(\mu, V)$, one can define the estimators for the sample mean $\hat{\mu} = \frac{1}{n} := X^T 1_n$, and sample ...
user43389's user avatar
  • 255
2 votes
0 answers
130 views

L1 error of estimators

I came across the following problem and I have no clue how to approach it. I am looking for help with directions or references. Consider the $\alpha$-stable distribution with unknown true mean $\mu$, ...
Robert's user avatar
  • 173
1 vote
0 answers
75 views

Percentile interval Lemma

Let $\theta$ be a parameter and $\hat{\theta}$ the plug-in estimate, I need a proof of the following lemma, as given in [1], p. 173, in the form of a reference or of a direct argument: Percentile ...
Roberto Palermo's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
108 views

Bootstrap-$t$ confidence intervals

I'm writing a dissertation about bootstrap methods and the main book I'm using is Efron, B., & Tibshirani, R.J. (1994), An Introduction to the Bootstrap (1st ed.), Chapman and Hall/CRC. Now I need ...
Roberto Palermo's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
113 views

Image restoration quality general lower bounds

A typical image restoration model posits that, starting from a true image $f = f(x,y)$, we observe $$ \tilde f = f \star h + n $$ where $\star$ is convolution, $h$ is the point spread function (caused,...
Elena Yudovina's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
170 views

Error metric for joint estimation of mean and variance

Background: Let $\mu:\mathbb{R}^n\to\mathbb{R}$ and $\sigma:\mathbb{R}^n\to\mathbb{R}_+$ be two unknown functions, and consider a stochastic model of the form $$ \mathbb{E}[Y\mid\mathbf{x}] = \mu(\...
guigux's user avatar
  • 617
-2 votes
1 answer
92 views

Existence or impossibility of Gaussian factory

Gaussian factory problem: given an iid sequence $x_i \sim \mathcal{N}(\mu,\sigma^2)$, $i=1,2,\dots$, with $\mu$ and $\sigma^2$ both unknown, construct a realization $y \sim \mathcal{N}(0,1)$.
Sebastian Nowozin's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
87 views

Optimal linear measurement operator

Let $x\in R^n$ be an unknown vector. Suppose I am allowed to choose any $A\in R^{m\times n}$, under the constraint that each row of $A$ has $\ell_2$ norm at most $1$. Then I carry out a "measurement", ...
Aryeh Kontorovich's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
676 views

Distribution of ratio between complex Gaussian and Chi-square R.V.s

What would be the distribution (p.d.f.) of the following ratio? $$z = \frac{x_{1}}{|x_{1}|^2 + |x_{2}|^2 + ... + |x_{M}|^2}$$ where $x_{i} \sim \mathcal{CN}(0,a), \forall i$ and $a > 1$. As can ...
Felipe Augusto de Figueiredo's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
632 views

An alternative proof of Bayesian Cramer-Rao

My question is: Are there an alternative proof of Cramer-Rao lower bound that does not use Cauchy-Swartz inequality? Let me outline the classical proof and explain why I am interested in this ...
Boby's user avatar
  • 671
2 votes
0 answers
56 views

Rate of $L_1$ loss in estmating density on $[0,1]$

Let $f$ be a density on $[0,1]$ and let $X_1,X_2,\ldots$ be $\textit{iid}$ $f$-distributed. Also, let $f_n$ denote the kernel density estimator, i.e. $$f_n(x) = \frac{1}{nh_n} \sum_{i=1}^n K\left(\...
Yannik's user avatar
  • 121
1 vote
1 answer
193 views

Fisher information with vanishing probability

I am confused about the definition of the Fisher information and the case when probability is 0. Consider discrete set $\epsilon$ of possible measurement outcomes. Fisher information is defined as: $$...
WoofDoggy's user avatar
  • 237
1 vote
0 answers
93 views

A different objective function in liner regression analysis

I'm an undergraduate student who is green in statistics. I have a problem in the chose of objective function when estimating the parameters. Let $Y = \beta^TX + \epsilon $ be the standard liner ...
R. Qian's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
0 answers
79 views

sufficient statistics that are irrelevant

I'm designing a lecture on hypothesis testing and want to do an example on a certain matter, but I cannot come up with a good one. If we should decide upon $H_0$ or $H_1$ given observed data sets ${\...
F Researcher's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
119 views

Calculate sample mean confidence interval of noisy logistical distribution

I have $n$ samples which follow a logistic distribution with unknown $u$ and $s$; it is affected by a Gaussian noise with 0 mean. I would like to estimate its average $u$ with a confidence interval (...
Dallatorre's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
96 views

Perturbation results for statistical estimators

Suppose I have a continuous random variable whose distribution $f$ is some parametric form (normal, exponential, etc.) that is known to me. If I draw many independent samples $x_i$ from $f$, I can ...
Tom Solberg's user avatar
  • 4,049
3 votes
0 answers
82 views

Uniform mean-square-error estimates

Consider a standard statistical estimation problem with iid real observations $\{X_i\}_{i=1}^N$. For a collection of real functions $\mathcal{F}$, I want to get an estimate of the uniform rate of ...
Sam Cohen's user avatar
  • 111
4 votes
1 answer
203 views

Can samples be compressed?

The Fisher information of a random variable $Y$ about a parameter $\theta$ upon which the probability of $Y$ depends is: $\mathcal{I}_Y(\theta)= -E\left[\left.\strut \frac{\partial^2}{\partial \theta^...
Daniel Moskovich's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
72 views

Robust weighted estimator of location

Let $X = (x_1, \ldots, x_n)$ be a sample of i.i.d values. There are several robust estimators of sample location, most notably sample median and Hodges-Lehmann estimator. Now let $W = (w_1, \ldots, ...
Andrey Paramonov's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
256 views

KL divergence Inequality

I am trying to find a proof for the following inequality, but I did not get anywhere following the references from the paper I was reading. Consider two probability measures $P$ and $Q$ both ...
rajatsen91's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
519 views

Cramér–Rao type bound for absolute estimation error

Let $\{X_1, X_2, \dotsc, X_n\}$ be independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) random variables sampled from a common distribution with density $f_{\theta}(x)$, where $\theta$ is an unknown ...
Michael's user avatar
  • 544
2 votes
1 answer
88 views

What is the problem with this model parameter estimation algorithm?

In a statistical model with parameters $\theta$ and unobserved laten variables $Z$, the model likelihood is $$L(\theta;X)=Pr(X|\theta)=\sum_ZPr(X,Z|\theta)$$ The standard way to estimate $\theta$ ...
Yicong Liang's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
409 views

How to estimate the entropy of a distribution on a power set?

Given a probability distribution $(X,p)$, its entropy is defined as $H=-\sum_{x\in X} p(x)\log p(x)$. Given a sample of observations $x_n,n=1..N$, one can estimate $p(x)=\frac{\#\{i:x_i=x\}}{N}$ and ...
sds's user avatar
  • 165
2 votes
2 answers
174 views

estimating variance of dependent normal distributed data

Let $X_{ij}$ with $1\leq i<j\leq n$ (that are $X_{12},\dots, X_{1n},\dots,X_{(n-1)n}$) be ${n \choose 2}$ identically normal distributed $N(0,\sigma^2)$ such that $ \text{corr}(X_{ij},X_{rs})=\rho ...
Jlamprong's user avatar
  • 133
4 votes
1 answer
288 views

Equivalent method for maximum likelihood estimation of covariance parameters

My goal is to estimate the parameters of a covariance matrix $\Omega$, by maximizing the following log-likelihood function: $$\log L(\vec\tau, \rho, \sigma \mid W, X) = -m\ln(\left | \Omega \right |) ...
Ruben van Bergen's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
186 views

Shrinkage (or Stein's phenomenon) in low dimensions, discrete contexts

I am trying to understand shrinkage, or the Stein phenomenon. As someone without a statistics background, the focus in most introductory presentations on normal distributions and squared error loss ...
user39080's user avatar
  • 203
5 votes
0 answers
190 views

Pair of two-variable polynomial equations of high order

I have the following pair of equations to be solved for two variables $\rho$ and $D$ resulting from a certain Maximum Likelihood Estimation for a time series $X_n > 0$, $n=0, \ldots, N+1$ with $N \...
H. Arponen's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
282 views

Is an unbiased estimator with arbitrarily small variance necessarily consistent?

Given an unbiased estimator $\hat \theta_n$ of a parameter $\theta$, if the estimator has small variance (approaching $0$ as $n\to\infty$), it seems reasonable to expect that the estimator is ...
Federico's user avatar
  • 133
0 votes
0 answers
185 views

Why does the OLS estimator simplify as follows for the single regressor case?

I was reading in "A Guide to Econometrics" that given $Y = X \beta + \epsilon$, the variance covariance matrix of $\beta^\text{OLS}$ is given by $\sigma^2 (X' X)^{-1}$ where $\sigma^2$ is the variance ...
Palace's user avatar
  • 1
3 votes
1 answer
578 views

Why doesn't Stein effect happen for multinomial distributions?

(Medeen, et all, 1998)" show that Maximum Likelihood estimate is admissible for multinomial distribution under squared error. On other hand, James and Stein showed that arithmetic average is not an ...
Yaroslav Bulatov's user avatar
20 votes
1 answer
4k views

Using Fisher Information to bound KL divergence

Is it possible to use Fisher Information at p to get a useful upper bound on KL(q,p)? KL(q,p) is known as Kullback-Liebler divergence and is defined for discrete distributions over k outcomes as ...
Yaroslav Bulatov's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
313 views

Is there a text on estimation theory online?

Where can I find graduate level, thorough, parameter estimation/ estimation theory material on the web?
liza's user avatar
  • 307
3 votes
3 answers
2k views

Is the min function ever an unbiased estimator for the mean?

Given $n$ i.i.d. variables $X_1$ to $X_n$ with an unknown probability distribution, the sample average is an unbiased estimator for the mean of the distribution. Is there some non-trivial probability ...
Claudiu's user avatar
  • 597