Multivariate τ-estimators for location and scatter

We discuss the robustness and asymptotic behaviour of τ-estimators for multivariate location and scatter. We show that τ-estimators correspond to multivariate M-estimators defined by a weighted average of redescending ψ-functions, where the weights are adaptive. We prove consistency and asymptotic normality under weak assumptions on the underlying distribution, show that τ-estimators have a high breakdown point, and obtain the influence function at general distributions. In the special case of a location-scatter family, τ-estimators are asymptotically equivalent to multivariate S-estimators defined by means of a weighted ψ-function. This enables us to combine a high breakdown point and bounded influence with good asymptotic efficiency for the location and covariance estimator.     

Bounded influence nonlinear signed‐rank regression

In this paper we consider weighted generalized‐signed‐rank estimators of nonlinear regression coefficients. The generalization allows us to include popular estimators such as the least squares and least absolute deviations estimators but by itself does not give bounded influence estimators. Adding weights results in estimators with bounded influence function. We establish conditions needed for the consistency and asymptotic normality of the proposed estimator and discuss how weight functions can be chosen to achieve bounded influence function of the estimator. Real life examples and Monte Carlo simulation experiments demonstrate the robustness and efficiency of the proposed estimator. An example shows that the weighted signed‐rank estimator can be useful to detect outliers in nonlinear regression. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 40: 172–189; 2012 © 2012 Statistical Society of Canada     

Estimation of the error distribution in a varying coefficient regression model

This paper deals with the estimation of the error distribution function in a varying coefficient regression model. We propose two estimators and study their asymptotic properties by obtaining uniform stochastic expansions. The first estimator is a residual-based empirical distribution function. We study this estimator when the varying coefficients are estimated by under-smoothed local quadratic smoothers. Our second estimator which exploits the fact that the error distribution has mean zero is a weighted residual-based empirical distribution whose weights are chosen to achieve the mean zero property using empirical likelihood methods. The second estimator improves on the first estimator. Bootstrap confidence bands based on the two estimators are also discussed.     

Non-parametric weighted tests for independence based on empirical copula process

We propose a class of flexible non-parametric tests for the presence of dependence between components of a random vector based on weighted Cramér–von Mises functionals of the empirical copula process. The weights act as a tuning parameter and are shown to significantly influence the power of the test, making it more sensitive to different types of dependence. Asymptotic properties of the test are stated in the general case, for an arbitrary bounded and integrable weighting function, and computational formulas for a number of weighted statistics are provided. Several issues relating to the choice of the weights are discussed, and a simulation study is conducted to investigate the power of the test under a variety of dependence alternatives. The greatest gain in power is found to occur when weights are set proportional to true deviations from independence copula.     

Weighted combinations of rank tests for location-scale alternatives

All existing location-scale rank tests use equal weights for the components. We advocate the use of weighted combinations of statistics. This approach can partly be substantiated by the theory of locally most powerful tests. We specifically investi= gate a Wilcoxon-Mood combination. We give exact critical values for a range of weights. The asymptotic normality of the test statistic is proved under a general hypothesis and Chernoff-Savage conditions. The asymptotic relative efficiency of this test with respect to unweighted combinations shows that a careful choice of weights results in a gain in efficiency.     

Weighted Wilcoxon Estimates for Autoregression

This paper explores the class of weighted Wilcoxon (WW) estimates in the context of autoregressive parameter estimation, giving special attention to three sub-classes of so-called WW-estimates. When the weights are constant, the estimate is equivalent to using Jaeckel's estimate with Wilcoxon scores. The paper presents asymptotic linearity properties for the three sub-classes of WW-estimates. These properties imply that the estimates are asymptotically normal at rate n ^½. Tests of hypotheses as well as standard errors for confidence interval procedures can be based on such results. Furthermore, the estimates can be computed with an L ₁ regression routine once the weights have been calculated. Examples and a Monte Carlo study over innovation and additive outlier models suggest that WW-estimates can be both robust and highly efficient.     

Probability density estimation with data missing at random when covariables are present

This paper addresses the problem of the probability density estimation in the presence of covariates when data are missing at random (MAR). The inverse probability weighted method is used to define a nonparametric and a semiparametric weighted probability density estimators. A regression calibration technique is also used to define an imputed estimator. It is shown that all the estimators are asymptotically normal with the same asymptotic variance as that of the inverse probability weighted estimator with known selection probability function and weights. Also, we establish the mean squared error (MSE) bounds and obtain the MSE convergence rates. A simulation is carried out to assess the proposed estimators in terms of the bias and standard error.     

Improving survey-weighted least squares regression

The weighted least squares (WLS) estimator is often employed in linear regression using complex survey data to deal with the bias in ordinary least squares (OLS) arising from informative sampling. In this paper a 'quasi-Aitken WLS' (QWLS) estimator is proposed. QWLS modifies WLS in the same way that Cragg's quasi-Aitken estimator modifies OLS. It weights by the usual inverse sample inclusion probability weights multiplied by a parameterized function of covariates, where the parameters are chosen to minimize a variance criterion. The resulting estimator is consistent for the superpopulation regression coefficient under fairly mild conditions and has a smaller asymptotic variance than WLS.     

Central composite designs for estimating the optimum conditions for a second-order model

Central composite designs which maximize both the precision and the accuracy of estimates of the extremal point of a second-order response surface for fixed values of the model parameters are constructed. Two optimality criteria are developed, the one relating to precision and based on the sum of the first-order approximations to the asymptotic variances and the other to accuracy and based on the sum of squares of the second-order approximations to the asymptotic biases of the estimates of the coordinates of the extremal point. Exact and continuous central composite designs are introduced and in particular designs which place no restriction on the pattern of the weights, termed benchmark designs, and designs which comprise equally weighted factorial and equally weighted axial points, termed axial-factorial designs, are explored. Algebraic results proved somewhat elusive and the requisite designs are obtained by a mix of algebra and numeric calculation or simply numerically. An illustrative example is presented and some interesting features which emerge from that example are discussed.     

Minimum distance lack-of-fit tests for fixed design

This paper discusses a class of tests of lack-of-fit of a parametric regression model when design is non-random and uniform on [0,1]. These tests are based on certain minimized distances between a nonparametric regression function estimator and the parametric model being fitted. We investigate asymptotic null distributions of the proposed tests, their consistency and asymptotic power against a large class of fixed and sequences of local nonparametric alternatives, respectively. The best fitted parameter estimate is seen to be n^1/2-consistent and asymptotically normal. A crucial result needed for proving these results is a central limit lemma for weighted degenerate U statistics where the weights are arrays of some non-random real numbers. This result is of an independent interest and an extension of a result of Hall for non-weighted degenerate U statistics.     

Weighted quantile regression and testing for varying-coefficient models with randomly truncated data

This paper develops a varying-coefficient approach to the estimation and testing of regression quantiles under randomly truncated data. In order to handle the truncated data, the random weights are introduced and the weighted quantile regression (WQR) estimators for nonparametric functions are proposed. To achieve nice efficiency properties, we further develop a weighted composite quantile regression (WCQR) estimation method for nonparametric functions in varying-coefficient models. The asymptotic properties both for the proposed WQR and WCQR estimators are established. In addition, we propose a novel bootstrap-based test procedure to test whether the nonparametric functions in varying-coefficient quantile models can be specified by some function forms. The performance of the proposed estimators and test procedure are investigated through simulation studies and a real data example.     

Asymptotic properties of the MAMSE adaptive likelihood weights

The weighted likelihood is a generalization of the likelihood designed to borrow strength from similar populations while making minimal assumptions. If the weights are properly chosen, the maximum weighted likelihood estimate may perform better than the maximum likelihood estimate (MLE). In a previous article, the minimum averaged mean squared error (MAMSE) weights are proposed and simulations show that they allow to outperform the MLE in many cases. In this paper, we study the asymptotic properties of the MAMSE weights. In particular, we prove that the MAMSE-weighted mixture of empirical distribution functions converges uniformly to the target distribution and that the maximum weighted likelihood estimate is strongly consistent. A short simulation illustrates the use of bootstrap in this context.     

A weighted linear quantile regression

In this article, we introduce a new weighted quantile regression method. Traditionally, the estimation of the parameters involved in quantile regression is obtained by minimizing a loss function based on absolute distances with weights independent of explanatory variables. Specifically, we study a new estimation method using a weighted loss function with the weights associated with explanatory variables so that the performance of the resulting estimation can be improved. In full generality, we derive the asymptotic distribution of the weighted quantile regression estimators for any uniformly bounded positive weight function independent of the response. Two practical weighting schemes are proposed, each for a certain type of data. Monte Carlo simulations are carried out for comparing our proposed methods with the classical approaches. We also demonstrate the proposed methods using two real-life data sets from the literature. Both our simulation study and the results from these examples show that our proposed method outperforms the classical approaches when the relative efficiency is measured by the mean-squared errors of the estimators.     

Relative risk regression for current status data in case‐cohort studies

We propose using the weighted likelihood method to fit a general relative risk regression model for the current status data with missing data as arise, for example, in case‐cohort studies. The missingness probability is either known or can be reasonably estimated. Asymptotic properties of the weighted likelihood estimators are established. For the case of using estimated weights, we construct a general theorem that guarantees the asymptotic normality of the M‐estimator of a finite dimensional parameter in a class of semiparametric models, where the infinite dimensional parameter is allowed to converge at a slower than parametric rate, and some other parameters in the objective function are estimated a priori. The weighted bootstrap method is employed to estimate the variances. Simulations show that the proposed method works well for finite sample sizes. A motivating example of the case‐cohort study from an HIV vaccine trial is used to demonstrate the proposed method. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 39: 557–577; 2011. © 2011 Statistical Society of Canada     

AMEMIYA'S FORM OF THE WEIGHTED LEAST SQUARES ESTIMATOR

Amemiya's estimator is a weighted least squares estimator of the regression coefficients in a linear model with heteroscedastic errors. It is attractive because the heteroscedasticity is not parametrized and the weights (which depend on the error covariance matrix) are estimated nonparametrically. This paper derives an asymptotic expansion for Amemiya's form of the weighted least squares estimator, and uses it to discuss the effects of estimating the weights, of the number of iterations, and of the choice of the initial estimate. The paper also discusses the special case of normally distributed errors and clarifies the particular consequences of assuming normality.     

Four Correlation Coefficients with a Third Blocking Variable: Their Efficacy,Relative Efficiency,and Test Statistics

Abstract

The efficacy and the asymptotic relative efficiency (ARE) of a weighted sum of Kendall's taus, a weighted sum of Spearman's rhos, a weighted sum of Pearson's r's, and a weighted sum of z-transformation of the Fisher–Yates correlation coefficients, in the presence of a blocking variable, are discussed. The method of selecting the weighting constants that maximize the efficacy of these four correlation coefficients is proposed. The estimate, test statistics and confidence interval of the four correlation coefficients with weights are also developed. To compare the small-sample properties of the four tests, a simulation study is performed. The theoretical and simulated results all prefer the weighted sum of the Pearson correlation coefficients with the optimal weights, as well as the weighted sum of z-transformation of the Fisher–Yates correlation coefficients with the optimal weights.     

Semiparametric Density Deconvolution

Abstract.  A new semiparametric method for density deconvolution is proposed, based on a model in which only the ratio of the unconvoluted to convoluted densities is specified parametrically. Deconvolution results from reweighting the terms in a standard kernel density estimator, where the weights are defined by the parametric density ratio. We propose that in practice, the density ratio be modelled on the log-scale as a cubic spline with a fixed number of knots. Parameter estimation is based on maximization of a type of semiparametric likelihood. The resulting asymptotic properties for our deconvolution estimator mirror the convergence rates in standard density estimation without measurement error when attention is restricted to our semiparametric class of densities. Furthermore, numerical studies indicate that for practical sample sizes our weighted kernel estimator can provide better results than the classical non-parametric kernel estimator for a range of densities outside the specified semiparametric class.     

Linear hypothesis testing for weighted functional data with applications

In socioeconomic areas, functional observations may be collected with weights, called weighted functional data. In this paper, we deal with a general linear hypothesis testing (GLHT) problem in the framework of functional analysis of variance with weighted functional data. With weights taken into account, we obtain unbiased and consistent estimators of the group mean and covariance functions. For the GLHT problem, we obtain a pointwise F-test statistic and build two global tests, respectively, via integrating the pointwise F-test statistic or taking its supremum over an interval of interest. The asymptotic distributions of test statistics under the null and some local alternatives are derived. Methods for approximating their null distributions are discussed. An application of the proposed methods to density function data is also presented. Intensive simulation studies and two real data examples show that the proposed tests outperform the existing competitors substantially in terms of size control and power.     

TAR模型加权秩估计及其性质讨论

秩估计是上个世纪60年代逐渐兴起的一种非参数方法,由于它具有稳健性等特征,从而得到较为广泛的应用。本文主要讨论了TAR模型随机加权秩估计及其性质问题,证明了基于一般计分函数的线性秩统计量关于回归参数的渐近一致线性性。本文讨论的建立在计分规则基础上的秩估计方法,虽然以TAR模型为对象,但其基本原理同样可以应用到其他非线性模型的参数估计中。     

Ensemble Approaches to Estimating the Population Mean with Missing Response

We propose new ensemble approaches to estimate the population mean for missing response data with fully observed auxiliary variables. We first compress the working models according to their categories through a weighted average, where the weights are proportional to the square of the least‐squares coefficients of model refitting. Based on the compressed values, we develop two ensemble frameworks, under which one is to adjust weights in the inverse probability weighting procedure and the other is built upon an additive structure by reformulating the augmented inverse probability weighting function. The asymptotic normality property is established for the proposed estimators through the theory of estimating functions with plugged‐in nuisance parameter estimates. Simulation studies show that the new proposals have substantial advantages over existing ones for small sample sizes, and an acquired immune deficiency syndrome data example is used for illustration.