Edgeworth Corrections for Realized Volatility

The quality of the asymptotic normality of realized volatility can be poor if sampling does not occur at very high frequencies. In this article we consider an alternative approximation to the finite sample distribution of realized volatility based on Edgeworth expansions. In particular, we show how confidence intervals for integrated volatility can be constructed using these Edgeworth expansions. The Monte Carlo study we conduct shows that the intervals based on the Edgeworth corrections have improved properties relatively to the conventional intervals based on the normal approximation. Contrary to the bootstrap, the Edgeworth approach is an analytical approach that is easily implemented, without requiring any resampling of one's data. A comparison between the bootstrap and the Edgeworth expansion shows that the bootstrap outperforms the Edgeworth corrected intervals. Thus, if we are willing to incur in the additional computational cost involved in computing bootstrap intervals, these are preferred over the Edgeworth intervals. Nevertheless, if we are not willing to incur in this additional cost, our results suggest that Edgeworth corrected intervals should replace the conventional intervals based on the first order normal approximation.     

Edgeworth Corrections for Realized Volatility

The quality of the asymptotic normality of realized volatility can be poor if sampling does not occur at very high frequencies. In this article we consider an alternative approximation to the finite sample distribution of realized volatility based on Edgeworth expansions. In particular, we show how confidence intervals for integrated volatility can be constructed using these Edgeworth expansions. The Monte Carlo study we conduct shows that the intervals based on the Edgeworth corrections have improved properties relatively to the conventional intervals based on the normal approximation. Contrary to the bootstrap, the Edgeworth approach is an analytical approach that is easily implemented, without requiring any resampling of one's data. A comparison between the bootstrap and the Edgeworth expansion shows that the bootstrap outperforms the Edgeworth corrected intervals. Thus, if we are willing to incur in the additional computational cost involved in computing bootstrap intervals, these are preferred over the Edgeworth intervals. Nevertheless, if we are not willing to incur in this additional cost, our results suggest that Edgeworth corrected intervals should replace the conventional intervals based on the first order normal approximation.     

Second-order and resampling approximation of finite population U-statistics based on stratified samples

We construct one-term Edgeworth expansions to distributions of U statistics and Studentized U-statistics, based on stratified samples drawn without replacement. Replacing the cumulants defining the expansions by consistent jackknife estimators, we obtain empirical Edgeworth expansions. The expansions provide second-order approximations that improve upon the normal approximation. Theoretical results are illustrated by a simulation study where we compare various approximations to the distribution of the commonly used Gini's mean difference estimator.     

An L 2 Comparison Between the Bootstrap and the Empirical Edgeworth Expansion

The Bootstrap estimate for studentized statistics is more accurate than both the normal approximation and the two-term empirical Edgeworth expansion. In this article, it will be shown that the three-term empirical Edgeworth expansion for studentized statistics compares well with the bootstrap. It is also shown that the three-term Edgeworth expansion is superior to the bootstrap in some cases, using more efficient estimators than sample moments in the Edgeworth expansion, such as using maximum likelihood estimators in the one-parameter exponential family.     

Second-order approximations of finite population L-statistics

We construct Edgeworth and empirical Edgeworth approximations to distribution functions of finite population L-statistics and compare their accuracy with that of the normal approximation and the bootstrap approximation in a simulation study.     

Asymptotic approximations to the distribution of Kendall's sample τ

This paper provides a saddlepoint approximation to the distribution of the sample version of Kendall's τ, which is a measure of association between two samples. The saddlepoint approximation is compared with the Edgeworth and the normal approximations, and with the bootstrap resampling distribution. A numerical study shows that with small sample sizes the saddlepoint approximation outperforms both the normal and the Edgeworth approximations. This paper gives also an analytical comparison between approximated and exact cumulants of the sample Kendall's τ when the two samples are independent.     

On the relative accuracy of certain bootstrap procedures

We show the second-order relative accuracy, on bounded sets, of the Studentized bootstrap, exponentially tilted bootstrap and nonparametric likelihood tilted bootstrap, for means and smooth functions of means. We also consider the relative errors for larger deviations. Our method exploits certain connections between Edgeworth and saddlepoint approximations to simplify the computations.     

On the relative performance of the block bootstrap for dependent data

In the independent setting, both Efron's bootstrap and “empiricai Edgeworth expansion” (E.E-expansion) give second-order accurate approximations to distributions of standardized and studentized statistics in the smooth function model. As a result, Efron's bootstrap was often regarded as roughly equivalent to the one-term E.E-expansion. However, a more detailed analysis shows that Efron's bootstrap outperforms the E.E-expansion in terms of loss functions by Bhattacharya and Qumsiyeh (1989) and in terms of probabilities for large deviations by Hall (1990) and Jing et a1 (1994). in this paper, we shall study the performances of the block bootstrap and the E.E-expansion for the weakly dependent data. It turns out that similar properties hold:both perform equally well at the center of the distribution but the block bootstrap provides accurate approximations even in the tails of the distributions. The study is focued on the simple case of standardized and studentized sample mean, but the conclusions can be easily extended to the smooth function of multivariate means.     

A comparison of bootstrap method and Edgeworth expansion in approximating the distribution of sample variance — one sample and two sample cases

The performance of the bootstrap method and the Edgeworth expansion in approximating the distribution of sample variance are compared when the data are from a non-normal population. Both approximations are very good. so long as the parent population is close to normal.     

Edgeworth expansion and the bootstrap for stratified sampling without replacement from a finite population

An Edgeworth expansion for a linear combination of stratum means in stratified sampling without replacement from a finite population is derived. The expansion is applied to a bootstrap proposed for this context to show that the bootstrap captures the second-order term of the expansion.     

Asymptotic Expansion and Conditional Robustness for the Sample Multiple Correlation Coefficient Under Nonnormality

ABSTRACT

Asymptotic distributions of the standardized estimators of the squared and non squared multiple correlation coefficients under nonnormality were obtained using Edgeworth expansion up to O(1/n). Conditions for the normal-theory asymptotic biases and variances to hold under nonnormality were derived with respect to the parameter values and the weighted sum of the cumulants of associated variables. The condition for the cumulants indicates a compensatory effect to yield the robust normal-theory lower-order cumulants. Simulations were performed to see the usefulness of the formulas of the asymptotic expansions using the model with the asymptotic robustness under nonnormality, which showed that the approximations by Edgeworth expansions were satisfactory.     

PROBABILITY APPROXIMATIONS FOR DIVISIBLE DISCRETE DISTRIBUTIONS

If an integer-valued random variable can be represented as a sum of independent random variables, then powerful tools exist to derive approximations to its distribution. We apply this idea to examples in some of which it is not clear how to give a physical interpretation to the independent sum-mands. We consider bounds on the accuracy of single term approximations, Edgeworth expansions and saddlepoint approximations for both individual probabilities and cumulative probabilities.     

Two-Term Edgeworth Expansions for the Classes of U- and V-statistics

Much effort has been devoted to deriving Edgeworth expansions for various classes of statistics that are asymptotically normally distributed, with derivations tailored to the individual structure of each class. Expansions with smaller error rates are needed for more accurate statistical inference. Two such Edgeworth expansions are derived analytically in this paper. One is a two-term expansion for the standardized U-statistic of order m, m ? 3, with an error rate o(n^{? 1}). The other is an expansion with the same error rate for the distribution of the standardized V-statistic of the same order. In deriving the Edgeworth expansion, we made use of the close connection between the V- and U-statistics, which permits to first derive the needed expansion for the related U-statistic, then extend it to the V-statistic, taking into consideration the estimation of all difference terms between the two statistics.     

Edgeworth expansions for nonparametric distribution estimation with applications

In this paper, we will investigate the nonparametric estimation of the distribution function F of an absolutely continuous random variable. Two methods are analyzed: the first one based on the empirical distribution function, expressed in terms of i.i.d. lattice random variables and, secondly, the kernel method, which involves nonlattice random vectors dependent on the sample size n; this latter procedure produces a smooth distribution estimator that will be explicitly corrected to reduce the effect of bias or variance. For both methods, the non-Studentized and Studentized statistics are considered as well as their bootstrap counterparts and asymptotic expansions are constructed to approximate their distribution functions via the Edgeworth expansion techniques. On this basis, we will obtain confidence intervals for F(x) and state the coverage error order achieved in each case.     

Empirical Bayes Confidence Intervals for Means of Natural Exponential Family-Quadratic Variance Function Distributions with Application to Small Area Estimation

Abstract.  The paper develops empirical Bayes (EB) confidence intervals for population means with distributions belonging to the natural exponential family-quadratic variance function (NEF-QVF) family when the sample size for a particular population is moderate or large. The basis for such development is to find an interval centred around the posterior mean which meets the target coverage probability asymptotically, and then show that the difference between the coverage probabilities of the Bayes and EB intervals is negligible up to a certain order. The approach taken is Edgeworth expansion so that the sample sizes from the different populations need not be significantly large. The proposed intervals meet the target coverage probabilities asymptotically, and are easy to construct. We illustrate use of these intervals in the context of small area estimation both through real and simulated data. The proposed intervals are different from the bootstrap intervals. The latter can be applied quite generally, but the order of accuracy of these intervals in meeting the desired coverage probability is unknown.     

Some alternatives to Edgeworth

The Edgeworth expansion is well known as a means for obtaining approximate tail probabilities from information concerning the moments of the distribution. Recent saddlepoint and asymptotic methods lead to several alternative approximations. These alternatives are developed and compared by means of average relative error.     

Asymptotic convergence in distribution for spearman's rank correlation coefficient

The Edgeworth expansion for the distribution function of Spearman's rank correlation coefficient may be used to show that the rates of convergence for the normal and Pearson type II approximations are l/nand l/n² respectively. Using the Edgeworth expansion up to terms involving the sixth moment of the exact distribution allows an approximation with an error of order l/n³.     

On bootstrap confidence limits for possibly skew distributed statistics

Statistics for which confidence limits or tests are calculated by bootstrap techniques frequently have asymmetric distributions. Approaches based only on boot-strapped variance are inadequatein such cases. In a Mte. Carlo study with a markedly skew X²-distributed statistic an approach by Edgeworth expansions using bootstrapped estimates of variance and skewness of the statistic's distribution performed well with respect to size and power and is proposed for variaus applications.     

Evaluating the Accuracy of Small P‐Values In Genetic Association Studies Using Edgeworth Expansions

The asymptotic distributions of many classical test statistics are normal. The resulting approximations are often accurate for commonly used significance levels, 0.05 or 0.01. In genome‐wide association studies, however, the significance level can be as low as 1×10⁻⁷, and the accuracy of the p‐values can be challenging. We study the accuracies of these small p‐values are using two‐term Edgeworth expansions for three commonly used test statistics in GWAS. These tests have nuisance parameters not defined under the null hypothesis but estimable. We derive results for this general form of testing statistics using Edgeworth expansions, and find that the commonly used score test, maximin efficiency robust test and the chi‐squared test are second order accurate in the presence of the nuisance parameter, justifying the use of the p‐values obtained from these tests in the genome‐wide association studies.     

On the validity of the perturbation method in asymptotic theory

The perturbation methods and the Taylor expansions are very often used to obtain test statistics approximations in multivariate analysis (Specially in Principal Component and Canonical Analyses). These approximations are then used to obtain formal Edgeworth expransions of the distribution functions of the statistics. BHATTACHARYA and GHOSH 1978 have justified these practices under suitable assumptions. In this paper a non classical perturbation problem is solved in order to obtain almost surely expansions of test statistics