A general central limit theorem and a subsampling variance estimator for α‐mixing point processes

We establish a central limit theorem for multivariate summary statistics of nonstationary α‐mixing spatial point processes and a subsampling estimator of the covariance matrix of such statistics. The central limit theorem is crucial for establishing asymptotic properties of estimators in statistics for spatial point processes. The covariance matrix subsampling estimator is flexible and model free. It is needed, for example, to construct confidence intervals and ellipsoids based on asymptotic normality of estimators. We also provide a simulation study investigating an application of our results to estimating functions.     

Asymptotic calculations of functions of expected values and covariances of order statistics

Suppose m and V are respectively the vector of expected values and the covariance matrix of the order statistics of a sample of size n from a continuous distribution F. A method is presented to calculate asymptotic values of functions of m and V ^–1, for distributions F which are sufficiently regular. Values are given for the normal, logistic, and extreme-value distributions; also, for completeness, for the uniform and exponential distributions, although for these other methods must be used.     

A limit theorem on moment convergence of centered spectral statistics of random matrices

ABSTRACT

The eigenvalues of a random matrix are a sequence of specific dependent random variables, the limiting properties of which are one of interesting topics in probability theory. The aim of the article is to extend some probability limiting properties of i.i.d. random variables in the context of the complete moment convergence to the centered spectral statistics of random matrices. Some precise asymptotic results related to the complete convergence of p-order conditional moment of Wigner matrices and sample covariance matrices are obtained. The proofs mainly depend on the central limit theorem and large deviation inequalities of spectral statistics.     

Chi-square tests for multivariate normality with application to common stock prices

The theory of chi-square tests with data-dependent cells is applied to provide tests of fit to the family of p-variate normal distributions. The cells are bounded by hyperellipses (x-[Xbar])'S^-1 (x-[Xbar]) = c_i centered at the sample mean [Xbar] and having shape deter-mined by the sample covariance matrix S. The Pearson statistic with these cells is affine-invariant, has a null distribution not depending on the true mean and covariance, and has asymptotic critical points between those of x² (M-1) and x² (M-2) when M cells are employed. The test is insensitive to lack of symmetry, but peakedness, broad shoulders and heavy tails are easily discerned in the cell counts. Multivariate normality of logarithms of relative prices of common stocks, a common assumption in finan-cial markets theory, is studied using the statistic described here and a large data base.     

Testing identity of high-dimensional covariance matrix

Two new statistics are proposed for testing the identity of high-dimensional covariance matrix. Applying the large dimensional random matrix theory, we study the asymptotic distributions of our proposed statistics under the situation that the dimension p and the sample size n tend to infinity proportionally. The proposed tests can accommodate the situation that the data dimension is much larger than the sample size, and the situation that the population distribution is non-Gaussian. The numerical studies demonstrate that the proposed tests have good performance on the empirical powers for a wide range of dimensions and sample sizes.     

On the Distribution of Matrix Quadratic Forms

A characterization of the distribution of the multivariate quadratic form given by X A X′, where X is a p × n normally distributed matrix and A is an n × n symmetric real matrix, is presented. We show that the distribution of the quadratic form is the same as the distribution of a weighted sum of non central Wishart distributed matrices. This is applied to derive the distribution of the sample covariance between the rows of X when the expectation is the same for every column and is estimated with the regular mean.     

Tests for high-dimensional covariance matrices using the theory of U-statistics

Test statistics for sphericity and identity of the covariance matrix are presented, when the data are multivariate normal and the dimension, p, can exceed the sample size, n. Under certain mild conditions mainly on the traces of the unknown covariance matrix, and using the asymptotic theory of U-statistics, the test statistics are shown to follow an approximate normal distribution for large p, also when p?n. The accuracy of the statistics is shown through simulation results, particularly emphasizing the case when p can be much larger than n. A real data set is used to illustrate the application of the proposed test statistics.     

Statistical Inference for High‐Dimensional Global Minimum Variance Portfolios

Many studies demonstrate that inference for the parameters arising in portfolio optimization often fails. The recent literature shows that this phenomenon is mainly due to a high‐dimensional asset universe. Typically, such a universe refers to the asymptotics that the sample size n + 1 and the sample dimension d both go to infinity while d ∕ n → c ∈ (0,1). In this paper, we analyze the estimators for the excess returns’ mean and variance, the weights and the Sharpe ratio of the global minimum variance portfolio under these asymptotics concerning consistency and asymptotic distribution. Problems for stating hypotheses in high dimension are also discussed. The applicability of the results is demonstrated by an empirical study. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Testing homogeneity of several covariance matrices and multi-sample sphericity for high-dimensional data under non-normality

A test for homogeneity of g ? 2 covariance matrices is presented when the dimension, p, may exceed the sample size, n_i, i = 1, …, g, and the populations may not be normal. Under some mild assumptions on covariance matrices, the asymptotic distribution of the test is shown to be normal when n_i, p → ∞. Under the null hypothesis, the test is extended for common covariance matrix to be of a specified structure, including sphericity. Theory of U-statistics is employed in constructing the tests and deriving their limits. Simulations are used to show the accuracy of tests.     

Accuracy of regularized D-rule for binary classification

We consider a regularized D-classification rule for high dimensional binary classification, which adapts the linear shrinkage estimator of a covariance matrix as an alternative to the sample covariance matrix in the D-classification rule (D-rule in short). We find an asymptotic expression for misclassification rate of the regularized D-rule, when the sample size $n$ and the dimension $p$ both increase and their ratio $p∕n$ approaches a positive constant $\gamma$. In addition, we compare its misclassification rate to the standard D-rule under various settings via simulation.     

Some robust tests of independence in symmetrical multivariate distributions

Let X =(x)^ij=(11¹, …, X,)_T, i = l, …n, be an n X random matrix having multivariate symmetrical distributions with parameters μ, Σ. The p-variate normal with mean μ and covariance matrix is a member of this family. Let be the squared multiple correlation coefficient between the first and the succeeding p₁ components, and let p² = + be the squared multiple correlation coefficient between the first and the remaining p₁ + p₂ =p – 1 components of the p-variate normal vector. We shall consider here three testing problems for multivariate symmetrical distributions. They are (A) to test p² =0 against; (B) to test against =0, 0; (C) to test against p² =0, We have shown here that for problem (A) the uniformly most powerful invariant (UMPI) and locally minimax test for the multivariate normal is UMPI and is locally minimax as p² 0 for multivariate symmetrical distributions. For problem (B) the UMPI and locally minimax test is UMPI and locally minimax as for multivariate symmetrical distributions. For problem (C) the locally best invariant (LBI) and locally minimax test for the multivariate normal is also LBI and is locally minimax as for multivariate symmetrical distributions.     

Joint Central Limit Theorem for Eigenvalue Statistics from Several Dependent Large Dimensional Sample Covariance Matrices with Application

Let X _n = (x _{i j} ) be a k ×n data matrix with complex‐valued, independent and standardized entries satisfying a Lindeberg‐type moment condition. We consider simultaneously R sample covariance matrices , where the Q _r 's are non‐random real matrices with common dimensions p ×k (k ≥p ). Assuming that both the dimension p and the sample size n grow to infinity, the limiting distributions of the eigenvalues of the matrices { B _{n r} } are identified, and as the main result of the paper, we establish a joint central limit theorem (CLT) for linear spectral statistics of the R matrices { B _{n r} }. Next, this new CLT is applied to the problem of testing a high‐dimensional white noise in time series modelling. In experiments, the derived test has a controlled size and is significantly faster than the classical permutation test, although it does have lower power. This application highlights the necessity of such joint CLT in the presence of several dependent sample covariance matrices. In contrast, all the existing works on CLT for linear spectral statistics of large sample covariance matrices deal with a single sample covariance matrix (R = 1).     

Classes of power semicircle laws that are randomly weighted average distributions

We give an affirmative answer to the conjecture raised in Soltani and Roozegar [On distribution of randomly ordered uniform incremental weighted averages: divided difference approach. Statist Probab Lett. 2012;82(5):1012–1020] that a certain class of power semicircle distributions, parameterized by n, gives the distributions of the average of n independent and identically Arcsine random variables weighted by the cuts of (0,1) by the order statistics of a uniform (0, 1) sample of size n?1, for each n. Then we establish the central limit theorem for this class of distributions. We also use the Demni [On generalized Cauchy–Stieltjes transforms of some beta distributions. Comm Stoch Anal. 2009;3:197–210] results on the connection between the ordinary and generalized Cauchy or Stieltjes transforms, and introduce new classes of randomly weighted average distributions.     

Large sample theory for a multivariate structural relationship with replication

For a multivariate structural relationship, where the replicated observations are available and the covariance matrix of the observational error is not restricted to diagonal, we consider the generalized least-squares estimators of the unknown structural parameters. The estimators are proved to be asymptotically normally distributed using the Liapunov central limit theorem under mild conditions on the incidental parameters. Their asymptotic covariance matrix is also derived.     

Using principal components to test normality of high-dimensional data

Many multivariate statistical procedures are based on the assumption of normality and different approaches have been proposed for testing this assumption. The vast majority of these tests, however, are exclusively designed for cases when the sample size n is larger than the dimension of the variable p, and the null distributions of their test statistics are usually derived under the asymptotic case when p is fixed and n increases. In this article, a test that utilizes principal components to test for nonnormality is proposed for cases when p/n → c. The power and size of the test are examined through Monte Carlo simulations, and it is argued that the test remains well behaved and consistent against most nonnormal distributions under this type of asymptotics.     

High dimensional asymptotics for the naive Hotelling T2 statistic in pattern recognition

Abstract

This paper examines the high dimensional asymptotics of the naive Hotelling T² statistic. Naive Bayes has been utilized in high dimensional pattern recognition as a method to avoid singularities in the estimated covariance matrix. The naive Hotelling T² statistic, which is equivalent to the estimator of the naive canonical correlation, is a statistically important quantity in naive Bayes and its high dimensional behavior has been studied under several conditions. In this paper, asymptotic normality of the naive Hotelling T² statistic under a high dimension low sample size setting is developed using the central limit theorem of a martingale difference sequence.     

Location‐invariant Multi‐sample U‐tests for Covariance Matrices with Large Dimension

For two or more multivariate distributions with common covariance matrix, test statistics for certain special structures of the common covariance matrix are presented when the dimension of the multivariate vectors may exceed the number of such vectors. The test statistics are constructed as functions of location‐invariant estimators defined as U‐statistics, and the corresponding asymptotic theory is used to derive the limiting distributions of the proposed tests. The properties of the test statistics are established under mild and practical assumptions, and the same are numerically demonstrated using simulation results with small or moderate sample sizes and large dimensions.     

Bootstrapping analogs of the one way MANOVA test

Abstract

Analogs of the classical one way MANOVA model have recently been suggested that do not assume that population covariance matrices are equal or that the error vector distribution is known. These tests are based on the sample mean and sample covariance matrix corresponding to each of the p populations. We show how to extend these tests using other measures of location such as the trimmed mean or coordinatewise median. These new bootstrap tests can have some outlier resistance, and can perform better than the tests based on the sample mean if the error vector distribution is heavy tailed.     

On Nonsmooth Estimating Functions via Jackknife Empirical Likelihood

In many applications, the parameters of interest are estimated by solving non‐smooth estimating functions with U‐statistic structure. Because the asymptotic covariances matrix of the estimator generally involves the underlying density function, resampling methods are often used to bypass the difficulty of non‐parametric density estimation. Despite its simplicity, the resultant‐covariance matrix estimator depends on the nature of resampling, and the method can be time‐consuming when the number of replications is large. Furthermore, the inferences are based on the normal approximation that may not be accurate for practical sample sizes. In this paper, we propose a jackknife empirical likelihood‐based inferential procedure for non‐smooth estimating functions. Standard chi‐square distributions are used to calculate the p‐value and to construct confidence intervals. Extensive simulation studies and two real examples are provided to illustrate its practical utilities.     

LEVERAGE ADJUSTMENTS FOR DISPERSION MODELLING IN GENERALIZED NONLINEAR MODELS

For normal linear models, it is generally accepted that residual maximum likelihood estimation is appropriate when covariance components require estimation. This paper considers generalized linear models in which both the mean and the dispersion are allowed to depend on unknown parameters and on covariates. For these models there is no closed form equivalent to residual maximum likelihood except in very special cases. Using a modified profile likelihood for the dispersion parameters, an adjusted score vector and adjusted information matrix are found under an asymptotic development that holds as the leverages in the mean model become small. Subsequently, the expectation of the fitted deviances is obtained directly to show that the adjusted score vector is unbiased at least to O(1/n) . Exact results are obtained in the single‐sample case. The results reduce to residual maximum likelihood estimation in the normal linear case.