Robust estimators of location and dispersion are often used in the elliptical model to obtain an uncontaminated and highly representative subsample by trimming the data outside an ellipsoid based in the associated Mahalanobis distance. Here we analyze some one (or $k$)-step Maximum Likelihood Estimators computed on a subsample obtained with such a procedure. We introduce different models which arise naturally from the ways in which the discarded data can be treated, leading to truncated or censored likelihoods, as well as to a likelihood based on an only outliers gross errors model. Results on existence, uniqueness, robustness and asymptotic properties of the proposed estimators are included. A remarkable fact is that the proposed estimators generally keep the breakdown point of the initial (robust) estimators, but they could improve the rate of convergence of the initial estimator because our estimators always converge at rate $n^{1/2}$, independently of the rate of convergence of the initial estimator.
Elliptically symmetric distributions are widely used in portfolio modeling, as well as in signal processing applications for modeling impulsive background noises. Of particular interest are algorithms for covariance estimation and subspace detection in such backgrounds. This article tackles the issue of correctly estimating the covariance matrix associated to such models and detecting additional signal superimposed on such distributions. A particular attention is given to the proper accounting of the circular symmetry for the subclass of complex elliptical distributions in the case of complex …
In this paper we obtain an adjusted version of the likelihood ratio test for errors-in-variables multivariate linear regression models. The error terms are allowed to follow a multivariate distribution in the class of the elliptical distributions, which has the multivariate normal distribution as a special case. We derive a modified likelihood ratio statistic that follows a chi-squared distribution with a high degree of accuracy. Our results generalize those in Melo and Ferrari(Advances in Statistical Analysis, 2010, 94, 75-87) by allowing the parameter of interest to be vector-valued in the m…
The maximum likelihood principle is widely used in statistics, and the associated estimators often display good properties. indeed maximum likelihood estimators are guaranteed to be asymptotically efficient under mild conditions. However in some settings, one has too few samples to get a good estimation. It then becomes desirable to take into account prior information about the distribution one wants to estimate. One possible approach is to extend the maximum likelihood principle in a bayesian context, which then becomes a maximum a posteriori estimate; however this requires a distribution mod…
The problem of reducing the bias of maximum likelihood estimator in a general multivariate elliptical regression model is considered. The model is very flexible and allows the mean vector and the dispersion matrix to have parameters in common. Many frequently used models are special cases of this general formulation, namely: errors-in-variables models, nonlinear mixed-effects models, heteroscedastic nonlinear models, among others. In any of these models, the vector of the errors may have any multivariate elliptical distribution. We obtain the second-order bias of the maximum likelihood estimat…
Consistency for constrained maximum likelihood estimation and clustering based on mixtures of elliptically-symmetric distributions under general data generating processes
This paper investigates improved testing inferences under a general multivariate elliptical regression model. The model is very flexible in terms of the specification of the mean vector and the dispersion matrix, and of the choice of the error distribution. The error terms are allowed to follow a multivariate distribution in the class of the elliptical distributions, which has the multivariate normal and Student-t distributions as special cases. We obtain Skovgaard's adjusted likelihood ratio statistics and Barndorff-Nielsen's adjusted signed likelihood ratio statistics and we conduct a simula…
We present an algorithm to obtain the maximum likelihood estimates of the correlation parameters of elliptical copulas. Previously existing methods for this task were either fast but only approximate or exact but very time-consuming, especially for high-dimensional problems. Our proposal combines the advantages of both, since it obtains the exact estimates and its performance makes it suitable for most practical applications. The algorithm is given with explicit expressions for the Gaussian and Student's t copulas.
Assessing One-Dimensional Cluster Stability by Extreme-Point Trimming
Group of Applied Mathematics and Computational Biology, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL University（应用数学与计算生物学组，巴黎高等师范大学，巴黎大学）；Churchill College, Cambridge University（剑桥大学切尔维尔学院）
In this paper, we develop modified versions of the likelihood ratio test for multivariate heteroskedastic errors-in-variables regression models. The error terms are allowed to follow a multivariate distribution in the elliptical class of distributions, which has the normal distribution as a special case. We derive the Skovgaard adjusted likelihood ratio statistics, which follow a chi-squared distribution with a high degree of accuracy. We conduct a simulation study and show that the proposed tests display superior finite sample behavior as compared to the standard likelihood ratio test. We ill…
Motivated by recent works on the high-dimensional logistic regression, we establish that the existence of the maximum likelihood estimate exhibits a phase transition for a wide range of generalized linear models with binary outcome and elliptical covariates. This extends a previous result of Candès and Sur who proved the phase transition for the logistic regression with Gaussian covariates. Our result reveals a rich structure in the phase transition phenomenon, which is simply overlooked by Gaussianity. The main tools for deriving the result are data separation, convex geometry and stochastic …
Truncated multivariate distributions arise extensively in econometric modelling when non-negative random variables are intrinsic to the data-generation process. More broadly, truncated multivariate distributions have appeared in censored and truncated regression models, simultaneous equations modelling, multivariate regression, and applications going back to the now-classic papers of Amemiya (1974) and Heckman (1976). In some applications of truncated multivariate distributions, there arises the problem of characterizing the distribution through correlation and independence properties of sub-v…
We formulate a class of angular Gaussian distributions that allows different degrees of isotropy for directional random variables of arbitrary dimension. Through a series of novel reparameterization, this distribution family is indexed by parameters with meaningful statistical interpretations that can range over the entire real space of an adequate dimension. The new parameterization greatly simplifies maximum likelihood estimation of all model parameters, which in turn leads to theoretically sound and numerically stable inference procedures to infer key features of the distribution. Byproduct…
The paper aims at finding widely and smoothly defined nonparametric location and scatter functionals. As a convenient vehicle, maximum likelihood estimation of the location vector m and scatter matrix S of an elliptically symmetric t distribution on d-dimensional space with degrees of freedom larger than 1 extends to an M-functional defined on all probability distributions P in a weakly open, weakly dense domain U. Here U consists of P not putting too much mass in hyperplanes of dimension < d, as shown for empirical measures by Kent and Tyler, Ann. Statist. 1991. It is shown here that (m,S) is…
Recent advances in extreme value theory have established $\ell$-Pareto processes as the natural limits for extreme events defined in terms of exceedances of a risk functional. Here we provide methods for the practical modelling of data based on a tractable yet flexible dependence model. We introduce the class of elliptical $\ell$-Pareto processes, which arise as the limit of threshold exceedances of certain elliptical processes characterized by a correlation function and a shape parameter. An efficient inference method based on maximizing a full likelihood with partial censoring is developed. …
We propose a class of locally and asymptotically optimal tests, based on multivariate ranks and signs for the homogeneity of scatter matrices in $m$ elliptical populations. Contrary to the existing parametric procedures, these tests remain valid without any moment assumptions, and thus are perfectly robust against heavy-tailed distributions (validity robustness). Nevertheless, they reach semiparametric efficiency bounds at correctly specified elliptical densities and maintain high powers under all (efficiency robustness). In particular, their normal-score version outperforms traditional Gaussi…
Inverse probability weighting (IPW) is widely used in many areas when data are subject to unrepresentativeness, missingness, or selection bias. An inevitable challenge with the use of IPW is that the IPW estimator can be remarkably unstable if some probabilities are very close to zero. To overcome this problem, at least three remedies have been developed in the literature: stabilizing, thresholding, and trimming. However the final estimators are still IPW type estimators, and inevitably inherit certain weaknesses of the naive IPW estimator: they may still be unstable or biased. We propose a bi…
This article proposes a new class of Real Elliptically Skewed (RESK) distributions and associated clustering algorithms that allow for integrating robustness and skewness into a single unified cluster analysis framework. Non-symmetrically distributed and heavy-tailed data clusters have been reported in a variety of real-world applications. Robustness is essential because a few outlying observations can severely obscure the cluster structure. The RESK distributions are a generalization of the Real Elliptically Symmetric (RES) distributions. To estimate the cluster parameters and memberships, we…
Recently attention has been drawn to practical problems with the use of unbounded Pareto distributions, for instance when there are natural upper bounds that truncate the probability tail. Aban, Meerschaert and Panorska (2006) derived the maximum likelihood estimator for the Pareto tail index of a truncated Pareto distribution with a right truncation point $T$. The Hill (1975) estimator is then obtained by letting $T \to \infty$. The problem of extreme value estimation under right truncation was also introduced in Nuyts (2010) who proposed a similar estimator for the tail index and considered …
We consider the problem of estimating the direction of arrival of a signal embedded in $K$-distributed noise, when secondary data which contains noise only are assumed to be available. Based upon a recent formula of the Fisher information matrix (FIM) for complex elliptically distributed data, we provide a simple expression of the FIM with the two data sets framework. In the specific case of $K$-distributed noise, we show that, under certain conditions, the FIM for the deterministic part of the model can be unbounded, while the FIM for the covariance part of the model is always bounded. In the…
Statistical analysis of tensor-valued data has largely used the tensor-variate normal (TVN) distribution that may be inadequate when data comes from distributions with heavier or lighter tails. We study a general family of elliptically contoured (EC) tensor-variate distributions and derive its characterizations, moments, marginal and conditional distributions, and the EC Wishart distribution. We describe procedures for maximum likelihood estimation from data that are (1) uncorrelated draws from an EC distribution, (2) from a scale mixture of the TVN distribution, and (3) from an underlying but…
We consider covariance estimation in the multivariate generalized Gaussian distribution (MGGD) and elliptically symmetric (ES) distribution. The maximum likelihood optimization associated with this problem is non-convex, yet it has been proved that its global solution can be often computed via simple fixed point iterations. Our first contribution is a new analysis of this likelihood based on geodesic convexity that requires weaker assumptions. Our second contribution is a generalized framework for structured covariance estimation under sparsity constraints. We show that the optimizations can b…
University of Bristol（布里斯托大学）；Tokyo Institute of Technology（东京工业大学）；RIKEN AIP（理化学研究所人工智能研究中心）
Truncated densities are probability density functions defined on truncated domains. They share the same parametric form with their non-truncated counterparts up to a normalizing constant. Since the computation of their normalizing constants is usually infeasible, Maximum Likelihood Estimation cannot be easily applied to estimate truncated density models. Score Matching (SM) is a powerful tool for fitting parameters using only unnormalized models. However, it cannot be directly applied here as boundary conditions used to derive a tractable SM objective are not satisfied by truncated densities. …
In the world of multivariate extremes, estimation of the dependence structure still presents a challenge and an interesting problem. A procedure for the bivariate case is presented that opens the road to a similar way of handling the problem in a truly multivariate setting. We consider a semi-parametric model in which the stable tail dependence function is parametrically modeled. Given a random sample from a bivariate distribution function, the problem is to estimate the unknown parameter. A method of moments estimator is proposed where a certain integral of a nonparametric, rank-based estimat…
A Copula density estimation method that is based on a finite mixture of heterogeneous parametric copula densities is proposed here. More specifically, the mixture components are Clayton, Frank, Gumbel, T, and normal copula densities, which are capable of capturing lower tail,strong central, upper tail, heavy tail, and symmetrical elliptical dependence, respectively. The model parameters are estimated by an interior-point algorithm for the constrained maximum likelihood problem. The interior-point algorithm is compared with the commonly used EM algorithm. Simulation and real data application sh…
We consider inference on the first principal direction of a $p$-variate elliptical distribution. We do so in challenging double asymptotic scenarios for which this direction eventually fails to be identifiable. In order to achieve robustness not only with respect to such weak identifiability but also with respect to heavy tails, we focus on sign-based statistical procedures, that is, on procedures that involve the observations only through their direction from the center of the distribution. We actually consider the generic problem of testing the null hypothesis that the first principal direct…
Spatially referenced data often have autocovariance functions with elliptical isolevel contours, a property known as geometric anisotropy. The anisotropy parameters include the tilt of the ellipse (orientation angle) with respect to a reference axis and the aspect ratio of the principal correlation lengths. Since these parameters are unknown a priori, sample estimates are needed to define suitable spatial models for the interpolation of incomplete data. The distribution of the anisotropy statistics is determined by a non-Gaussian sampling joint probability density. By means of analytical calcu…
In this paper the method of simulated quantiles (MSQ) of Dominicy and Veredas (2013) and Dominick et al. (2013) is extended to a general multivariate framework (MMSQ) and to provide a sparse estimator of the scale matrix (sparse-MMSQ). The MSQ, like alternative likelihood-free procedures, is based on the minimisation of the distance between appropriate statistics evaluated on the true and synthetic data simulated from the postulated model. Those statistics are functions of the quantiles providing an effective way to deal with distributions that do not admit moments of any order like the $α$-St…
Assumptions on a likelihood function, including a local Glivenko-Cantelli condition, imply the existence of M-estimators converging to an M-functional. Scatter matrix-valued estimators, defined on all empirical measures on ${\Bbb{R}}^d$ for $d\geq 2$, and equivariant under all, including singular, affine transformations, are shown to be constants times the sample covariance matrix. So, if weakly continuous, they must be identically 0. Results are stated on existence and differentiability of location and scatter functionals, defined on a weakly dense, weakly open set of laws, via elliptically s…
