Strong laws of large numbers for dependent heterogeneous processes: a synthesis of recent and new results

This paper surveys recent developments in the strong law of large numbers for dependent heterogeneous processes. We prove a generalised version of a recent strong law for Lz-mixingales, and also a new strong law for Lpmixingales. These results greatly relax the dependence and heterogeneity conditions relative to those currently cited, and introduce explicit trade-offs between dependence and heterogeneity. The results are applied to proving strong laws for near-epoch dependent functions of mixing processes. We contrast several methods for obtaining these results, including mapping directly to the mixingale properties, and applying a truncation argument.     

Strong laws of large numbers for dependent heterogeneous processes: a synthesis of recent and new results

This paper surveys recent developments in the strong law of large numbers for dependent heterogeneous processes. We prove a generalised version of a recent strong law for Lz-mixingales, and also a new strong law for Lpmixingales. These results greatly relax the dependence and heterogeneity conditions relative to those currently cited, and introduce explicit trade-offs between dependence and heterogeneity. The results are applied to proving strong laws for near-epoch dependent functions of mixing processes. We contrast several methods for obtaining these results, including mapping directly to the mixingale properties, and applying a truncation argument.     

A note on nonlinear regression for the autoregressive moving average with non-hd errors

Estimation by nonlinear regression of the parameters for the stationary and invertible autoregressive moving average (ARMA) model with mixing or martingale difference errors is considered. Simple proofs of consistency and asymptotic normality for the nonlinear least squares estimator are given by exploiting results from nonlinear estimation theory and mixing and mixingale theory.     

Complete convergence for weighted sums of mixingale sequences and statistical applications

In this paper, the complete convergence of weighted sums of L^r-mixingale is established, from which the complete convergence of martingale differences is also derived. As statistical applications, non parametric regression model and simpler linear errors-in-variables model with mixingale errors are discussed.     

An invariance principle for triangular arrays of dependent variables with application to autocovariance estimation

The invariance principle for triangular arrays of dependent variables is studied. We use the concept of mixingale, proposed by McLeish (1975). Uniform bounds are imposed on the growth of conditional expectations with respect to distant predecessors. The theorem is applied to invariance principles for autocovariance estimates based on triangular arrays of time-series data for weak mixing sequences and linear processes. Such results are required for bootstrap applications.     

On functional central limit theorems for dependent,heterogeneous arrays with applications to tail index and tail dependence estimation

We establish invariance principles for a large class of dependent, heterogeneous arrays. The theory equally covers conventional arrays, and inherently degenerate tail arrays popularly encountered in the extreme value theory literature including sample means and covariances of tail events and exceedances. For tail arrays we trim dependence assumptions down to a minimum leaving non-extremes and joint distributions unrestricted, covering geometrically ergodic, mixing, and mixingale processes, in particular linear and nonlinear distributed lags with long or short memory, linear and nonlinear GARCH, and stochastic volatility.     

A consistency result in general censoring models

In this paper we prove a consistency result for sieved maximum likelihood estimators of the density in general random censoring models with covariates. The proof is based on the method of functional estimation. The estimation error is decomposed in a deterministic approximation error and the stochastic estimation error. The main part of the proof is to establish a uniform law of large numbers for the conditional log-likelihood functional, by using results and techniques from empirical process theory.     

Deviation of order p for estimators of the variance in first-order stochastic differential equation (SDE)

In this work, we consider a non-parametric estimator of the variance in one-dimensional diffusion models or, more generally, in Itô processes with a deterministic diffusion term and a general non-anticipative drift. The estimation is based on the quadratic variation of discrete time observations over a finite interval. In particular, a central limit theorem (CLT) is proved for the deviation in L ^p norm (p≥; 1) between the variance and this estimator. The method of the proof consists in writing the L ^p norm of the deviation, when the drift term is equal to zero, as a sum of 4-dependent random variables. The moments are then computed by means of a Gaussian approximation and a CLT for m-dependent random variables is applied. The convergence is stable in law, this allows the result for processes with general drifts to be obtained, by using Girsanov's formula.     

Weak approximations for quantile processes of stationary sequences

ABSTRACT By studying the deviations between uniform empirical and quantile processes (the so-called Bahadur-Kiefer representations) of a stationary sequence in properly weighted sup-norm metrics, we find a general approach to obtaining weighted results for uniform quantile processes of stationary sequences. Consequently we are able to obtain weak convergence for weighted uniform quantile processes of stationary mixing and associated sequences. Further, by studying the sup-norm distance of a general quantile process from its corresponding uniform quantile process, we find that information at the two end points of the uniform quantile process can be so utilized that this weighted sup-norm distance converges in probability to zero under the so-called Csörgõ-Révész conditions. This enables us to obtain weak convergence for weighted general quantile processes of stationary mixing and associated sequences.     

A Strong Law of Large Numbers for Strongly Mixing Processes

We prove a strong law of large numbers for a class of strongly mixing processes. Our result rests on recent advances in understanding of concentration of measure. It is simple to apply and gives finite-sample (as opposed to asymptotic) bounds, with readily computable rate constants. In particular, this makes it suitable for analysis of inhomogeneous Markov processes. We demonstrate how it can be applied to establish an almost-sure convergence result for a class of models that includes as a special case a class of adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms.     

Nonparametric maximum-likelihood estimation of probability measures: existence and consistency

This paper formulates the nonparametric maximum-likelihood estimation of probability measures and generalizes the consistency result on the maximum-likelihood estimator (MLE). We drop the independent assumption on the underlying stochastic process and replace it with the assumption that the stochastic process is stationary and ergodic. The present proof employs Birkhoff's ergodic theorem and the martingale convergence theorem. The main result is applied to the parametric and nonparametric maximum-likelihood estimation of density functions.     

Uniform strong consistency of histogram density estimation for dependent process

Histogram density estimator is very intuitive and easy to compute and has been widely adopted. Especially in today's big data environment, people pay more attention to the computational cost and are more willing to choose estimators with less to compute. And so, many scholars have been interested in the various estimates based on the histogram technique. Under strong mixing process, this article studies the uniform strong consistency of histogram density estimator and the convergence rate. Our conditions on the mixing coefficient and the bin width are very mild.     

Asymptotic results for hybrids of empirical and partial sums processes

The present paper is devoted to the study of the hybrids of empirical and partial sums processes. In the first part, we present a synthesis of results related to these processes and their connection with the empirical and compound process. We obtain new results on the precise asymptotics in the law of the logarithm related to complete convergence and a.s. convergence, under some mild conditions, for the hybrids of empirical and partial sums processes. Finally, the weighted bootstrap processes and general hybrid processes are also discussed.     

Convergence of the Guesstimation Algorithm

Economists attempting to build econometric or forecasting models are frequently restricted due to data scarcity in terms of short time series of data, and also of parameter non constancy and under-specification. In this case, a realistic alternative is often to guess rather than to estimate parameters of such models. An algorithm of repetitive guessing (drawing) parameters from iteratively changing distributions, with the objective of minimizing the squares of ex-post prediction errors, weighted by penalty weights and subject to a learning process, has been recently introduced. Despite obvious advantages, especially when applied for undersized empirical models with a large number of parameters, applications of Repetitive Stochastic Guesstimation have been, so far, limited. This has presumably been caused by the lack of rigorous proof of its convergence. Such proof for a class of linear models, both identifiable (in the economic sense) and not, is provided in this article.     

Lifetesting and estimation with arbitrary distribution function

We consider the problem of estimating the life–distribution F from censored lifetimes. The observation scheme is renewal testing over a long time horizon although the results can apply to survival testing with repetitions. We exhibit a product–limit estimator of F which is shown to be consistent and to converge weakly to a GAUSsian process. To do this we first extend these properties of the NELSON-AALEN martingale estimator to the family of PoissoN–type counting processes. Our proof of weak convergence is based on the general functional central limit theorems for semimartingales as developed by .JACOB, SHIRYAYEV and others     

Wavelet‐based estimators for mixture regression

We consider a process that is observed as a mixture of two random distributions, where the mixing probability is an unknown function of time. The setup is built upon a wavelet‐based mixture regression. Two linear wavelet estimators are proposed. Furthermore, we consider three regularizing procedures for each of the two wavelet methods. We also discuss regularity conditions under which the consistency of the wavelet methods is attained and derive rates of convergence for the proposed estimators. A Monte Carlo simulation study is conducted to illustrate the performance of the estimators. Various scenarios for the mixing probability function are used in the simulations, in addition to a range of sample sizes and resolution levels. We apply the proposed methods to a data set consisting of array Comparative Genomic Hybridization from glioblastoma cancer studies.     

Pointwise and uniform convergence of multivariate kernel density estimators using random bandwidths

We obtain the rates of pointwise and uniform convergence of multivariate kernel density estimators using a random bandwidth vector obtained by some data-based algorithm. We are able to obtain faster rate for pointwise convergence. The uniform convergence rate is obtained under some moment condition on the marginal distribution. The rates are obtained under i.i.d. and strongly mixing type dependence assumptions.     

Estimation in multitype epidemics

A multitype epidemic model is analysed assuming proportionate mixing between types. Estimation procedures for the susceptibilities and infectivities are derived for three sets of data: complete data, meaning that the whole epidemic process is observed continuously; the removal processes are observed continuously; only the final state is observed. Under the assumption of a major outbreak in a population of size n it is shown that, for all three data sets, the susceptibility estimators are always efficient, i.e. consistent with a √ n rate of convergence. The infectivity estimators are 'in most cases' respectively efficient, efficient and unidentifiable. However, if some susceptibilities are equal then the corresponding infectivity estimators are respectively barely consistent (√log( n ) rate of convergence), not consistent and unidentifiable. The estimators are applied to simulated data.     

EM Estimation for Finite Mixture Models with Known Mixture Component Size

We consider the use of an EM algorithm for fitting finite mixture models when mixture component size is known. This situation can occur in a number of settings, where individual membership is unknown but aggregate membership is known. When the mixture component size, i.e., the aggregate mixture component membership, is known, it is common practice to treat only the mixing probability as known. This approach does not, however, entirely account for the fact that the number of observations within each mixture component is known, which may result in artificially incorrect estimates of parameters. By fully capitalizing on the available information, the proposed EM algorithm shows robustness to the choice of starting values and exhibits numerically stable convergence properties.     

Central Limit Theorems of Local Polynomial Threshold Estimator for Diffusion Processes with Jumps

Central limit theorems play an important role in the study of statistical inference for stochastic processes. However, when the non‐parametric local polynomial threshold estimator, especially local linear case, is employed to estimate the diffusion coefficients of diffusion processes, the adaptive and predictable structure of the estimator conditionally on the σ ‐field generated by diffusion processes is destroyed, so the classical central limit theorem for martingale difference sequences cannot work. In high‐frequency data, we proved the central limit theorems of local polynomial threshold estimators for the volatility function in diffusion processes with jumps by Jacod's stable convergence theorem. We believe that our proof procedure for local polynomial threshold estimators provides a new method in this field, especially in the local linear case.