The mad estimator: when is it non-linear? applications to two-way design models

The mean absolute deviation (MAD) estimator has recently received a great deal of attention as applied to full-rank linear regression models. This paper provides a necessary and sufficient condition for the MAD estimator to be a non-linear estimator, in which case conditions for the variance of the MAD estimator to be larger or smaller than those for OLS are, in general, unknown. The non-linearity of the MAD estimator is examined for several two-way designs; in particular (1) randomized block design (2) two-way nested design (3) two-way classification with interaction and (4) partially balanced incomplete block design     

MSE-matrix superiority of the mixed over the least squares estimator in the presence of outliers

In his recent paper, Ali (1991) has shown that the mixed regression estimator, when data contain mean-shift or variance inflation outliers, is uniformly superior to the ordinary least squares estimator in terms of scalar-valued mean square error. However, when using the matrix-valued mean square error criterion, this dominance fails to hold in general. The subsequent investigation gives a complete characterization of the situation where the mixed estimator is superior to the LS-estimator when the comparison is made with respect to this stronger MSE-property. Vice versa, the LS-estimator never dominates the mixed estimator relative to this criterion.     

Shrinkage Structure of Partial Least Squares

Partial least squares regression (PLS) is one method to estimate parameters in a linear model when predictor variables are nearly collinear. One way to characterize PLS is in terms of the scaling (shrinkage or expansion) along each eigenvector of the predictor correlation matrix. This characterization is useful in providing a link between PLS and other shrinkage estimators, such as principal components regression (PCR) and ridge regression (RR), thus facilitating a direct comparison of PLS with these methods. This paper gives a detailed analysis of the shrinkage structure of PLS, and several new results are presented regarding the nature and extent of shrinkage.     

Smoothing a Time Series by Segments of the Data Range

We consider the problem of estimating a trend with different amounts of smoothness for segments of a time series subjected to different variability regimes. We propose using an unobserved components model to consider the existence of at least two data segments. We first fix some desired percentages of smoothness for the trend segments and deduce the corresponding smoothing parameters involved. Once the size of each segment is chosen, the smoothing formulas here derived produce trend estimates for all segments with the desired smoothness as well as their corresponding estimated variances. Empirical examples from demography and economics illustrate our proposal.     

Some Matrix Norm Kantorovich Inequalities and Their Applications

In this article, we first present four matrix norm Kantorovich-type inequalities involving non negative definite matrix. Then, based on these inequalities, we propose four new efficiency criteria and present their lower bounds to make efficiency comparisons between the ordinary least squares estimator and the best linear unbiased estimator in a singular linear model.     

Ridge regression estimators in the linear regression models with non-spherical errors

The present paper considers a family of ordinary ridge regression estimators in the linear regression model when the disturbances covariance matrix depends upon a few unknown parameters. An asymptotic expansion for the distribution of the ridge regression estimator is developed and under the quadratic loss function its asymptotic risk is compared with that of the feasible GLS estimator.     

Variance bounds for estimators in autoregressive models with constraints

We consider nonlinear and heteroscedastic autoregressive models whose residuals are martingale increments with conditional distributions that fulfil certain constraints. We treat two classes of constraints: residuals depending on the past through some function of the past observations only, and residuals that are invariant under some finite group of transformations. We determine the efficient influence function for estimators of the autoregressive parameter in such models, calculate variance bounds, discuss information gains, and suggest how to construct efficient estimators. Without constraints, efficient estimators can be given by weighted least squares estimators. With the constraints considered here, efficient estimators are obtained differently, as one-step improvements of some initial estimator, similarly as in autoregressive models with independent increments.     

On Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Ordinary Least Squares Estimators to Be Best Linear Unbiased Estimators

Two often-quoted necessary and sufficient conditions for ordinary least squares estimators to be best linear unbiased estimators are described. Another necessary and sufficient condition is described, providing an additional tool for checking to see whether the covariance matrix of a given linear model is such that the ordinary least squares estimator is also the best linear unbiased estimator. The new condition is used to show that one of the two published conditions is only a sufficient condition.     

On a Relation between Principal Components and Regression Analysis

A regression approach to principal component analysis is presented in this note. We provide an alternative interpretation of principal components that illustrates the relation between the extra sum of squares in regression analysis and the eigenvalues associated with the principal components.     

Time series count data regression

The count data model studied in the paper extends the Poisson model by al-lowing for overdispersion and serial correlation. Alternative approaches to esti-mate nuisance parameters, required for the correction of the Poisson maximum likelihood covariance matrix estimator and for a quasi-likelihood estimator, are studied. The estimators are evaluated by finite sample Monte Carlo experi-mentation. It is found that the Poisson maximum likelihood estimator with corrected covariance matrix estimators provide reliable inferences for longer time series. Overdispersion test statistics are wellbehaved, while conventional portmanteau statistics for white noise have too large sizes. Two empirical illustrations are included.