Search arXivSearch

arXiv · 1511.03982

Mean Square Error bounds for parameter estimation under model misspecification

Abstract

In parameter estimation, assumptions about the model are typically considered which allow us to build optimal estimation methods under many statistical senses. However, it is usually the case where such models are inaccurately known or not capturing the complexity of the observed phenomenon. A natural question arises to whether we can find fundamental estimation bounds under model mismatches. This paper derives a general bound on the mean square error (MSE) following the Ziv-Zakai methodology for the widely used additive Gaussian model. The general result accounts for erroneous functionals, hyperparameters, and distributions differing from the Gaussian. The result is then particularized to gain some insight into specific problems and some illustrative examples demonstrate the predictive capabilities of the bound.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Adrià Gusi-Amigó, Pau Closas, Luc Vandendorpe. 2015-12-11. Mean Square Error bounds for parameter estimation under model misspecification. https://arxiv.org/abs/1511.03982

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Variance Reduction for Independent Metropolis

Assume that we would like to estimate the expected value of a function $F$ with respect to an intractable density $π$, which is specified up to some unknown normalising constant. We prove that if $π$ is close enough under KL divergence to another density $q$, an independent Metropolis sampler estimator that obtains samples from $π$ with proposal density $q$, enriched with a variance reduction computational strategy based on control variates, achieves smaller asymptotic variance than i.i.d. sampling from $π$. The control variates construction requires no extra computational effort but assumes that the expected value of $F$ under $q$ is analytically available. We illustrate this result by calculating the marginal likelihood in a linear regression model with prior-likelihood conflict and a non-conjugate prior. Furthermore, we propose an adaptive independent Metropolis algorithm that adapts the proposal density such that its KL divergence with the target is being reduced. We demonstrate its applicability in a Bayesian logistic and Gaussian process regression problems and we rigorously justify our asymptotic arguments under easily verifiable and essentially minimal conditions.

math.ST

Edgeworth corrections for the spiked eigenvalues of non-Gaussian sample covariance matrices with applications

Yang and Johnstone (2018) established an Edgeworth correction for the largest sample eigenvalue in a spiked covariance model under the assumption of Gaussian observations, leaving the extension to non-Gaussian settings as an open problem. In this paper, we address this issue by establishing first-order Edgeworth expansions for spiked eigenvalues in both single-spike and multi-spike scenarios with non-Gaussian data. Leveraging these expansions, we construct more accurate confidence intervals for the population spiked eigenvalues and propose a novel estimator for the number of spikes. Simulation studies demonstrate that our proposed methodology outperforms existing approaches in both robustness and accuracy across a wide range of settings, particularly in low-dimensional cases.

math.ST

Measures of Dependence based on Wasserstein distances

Measuring dependence between random variables is a fundamental problem in Statistics, with applications across diverse fields. While classical measures such as Pearson's correlation have been widely used for over a century, they have notable limitations, particularly in capturing nonlinear relationships and extending to general metric spaces. In recent years, the theory of Optimal Transport and Wasserstein distances has provided new tools to define measures of dependence that generalize beyond Euclidean settings. This survey explores recent proposals, outlining two main approaches: one based on the distance between the joint distribution and the product of marginals, and another leveraging conditional distributions. We discuss key properties, including characterization of independence, normalization, invariances, robustness, sample, and computational complexity. Additionally, we propose an alternative perspective that measures deviation from maximal dependence rather than independence, leading to new insights and potential extensions. Our work highlights recent advances in the field and suggests directions for further research in the measurement of dependence using Optimal Transport.

math.ST