In this paper, expansions for the maximum likelihood estimator of location and its distribution funtion are extended to fifth order. Since the proofs are straightforward extentions of proofs given in earlier papers for orders less than the fifth, they are not given here. The purpose of the paper is mainly to present the higher order expansions.
In order to overcome multicollinearity, we propose a stochastic restricted Liu-type max- imum likelihood estimator by incorporating Liu-type maximum likelihood estimator (Inan and Erdo- gan, 2013) to the logistic regression model when the linear restrictions are stochastic. We also discuss the properties of the new estimator. Moreover, we give a method to choose the biasing parameter in the new estimator. Finally, a simulation study is given to show the performance of the new estimator.
We describe Monte Carlo approximation to the maximum likelihood estimator in models with intractable norming constants and explanatory variables. We consider both sources of randomness (due to the initial sample and to Monte Carlo simulations) and prove asymptotical normality of the estimator.
In this paper, insight is given in the techniques used to compute asymptotic expansions. In a broad fashion the technique is described. Most of the results apply to the paper "An expansion for the maximum likelihood estimator and its distribution function", which will be submitted.
Skew normal mixture models provide a more flexible framework than the popular normal mixtures for modelling heterogeneous data with asymmetric behaviors. Due to the unboundedness of likelihood function and the divergency of shape parameters, the maximum likelihood estimators of the parameters of interest are often not well defined, leading to dissatisfactory inferential process. We put forward a proposal to deal with these issues simultaneously in the context of penalizing the likelihood function. The resulting penalized maximum likelihood estimator is proved to be strongly consistent when the…
The von Mises-Fisher distribution is one of the most widely used probability distributions to describe directional data. Finite mixtures of von Mises-Fisher distributions have found numerous applications. However, the likelihood function for the finite mixture of von Mises-Fisher distributions is unbounded and consequently the maximum likelihood estimation is not well defined. To address the problem of likelihood degeneracy, we consider a penalized maximum likelihood approach whereby a penalty function is incorporated. We prove strong consistency of the resulting estimator. An Expectation-Maxi…
In this note we prove the dual representation formula of the divergence between two distributions in a parametric model. Resulting estimators for the divergence as for the parameter are derived. These estimators do not make use of any grouping nor smoothing. It is proved that all differentiable divergences induce the same estimator of the parameter on any regular exponential family, which is nothing else but the MLE.
This paper develops a particle filter maximum likelihood estimator for the competitive storage model. The estimator is suitable for inference problems in commodity markets where only reliable price data is available for estimation, and shocks are temporally dependent. The estimator efficiently utilizes the information present in the conditional distribution of prices when shocks are not iid. Compared to Deaton and Laroque's composite quasi-maximum likelihood estimator, simulation experiments and real-data estimation show substantial improvements in both bias and precision. Simulation experimen…
In this paper, we propose an empirical likelihood-based weighted estimator of regression parameter in quantile regression model with nonignorable missing covariates. The proposed estimator is computationally simple and achieves semiparametric efficiency if the probability of missingness on the fully observed variables is correctly specified. The efficiency gain of the proposed estimator over the complete-case-analysis estimator is quantified theoretically and illustrated via simulation and a real data application.
In linear regression, the least squares (LS) estimator has certain optimality properties if the errors are normally distributed. This assumption is often violated in practice, partly caused by data outliers. Robust estimators can cope with this situation and thus they are widely used in practice. One example of robust estimators for regression are adaptive modified maximum likelihood (AMML) estimators (Donmez, 2010). However, they are not robust to $x$ outliers, so-called leverage points. In this study, we propose a new regression estimator by employing an appropriate weighting scheme in the A…
This paper develops a bias correction scheme for a multivariate heteroskedastic errors-in-variables model. The applicability of this model is justified in areas such as astrophysics, epidemiology and analytical chemistry, where the variables are subject to measurement errors and the variances vary with the observations. We conduct Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the performance of the corrected estimators. The numerical results show that the bias correction scheme yields nearly unbiased estimates. We also give an application to a real data set.
In this paper we investigate the performance of a variety of estimation techniques for the scale and shape parameter of the Lomax distribution. These methods include traditional methods such as the maximum likelihood estimator and the method of moments estimator. A version of the maximum likelihood estimator adjusted for bias is also included. Furthermore, alternative moment-based estimation techniques such as the $L$-moment estimator and the probability weighted moments estimator are included along with three different minimum distance estimators. The finite sample performances of each of the…
Joint maximum likelihood (JML) estimation is one of the earliest approaches to fitting item response theory (IRT) models. This procedure treats both the item and person parameters as unknown but fixed model parameters and estimates them simultaneously by solving an optimization problem. However, the JML estimator is known to be asymptotically inconsistent for many IRT models, when the sample size goes to infinity and the number of items keeps fixed. Consequently, in the psychometrics literature, this estimator is less preferred to the marginal maximum likelihood (MML) estimator. In this paper,…
The $α$-Brownian bridge, or scaled Brownian bridge, is a generalization of the Brownian bridge with a scaling parameter that determines how strong the force that pulls the process back to 0 is. The bias of the maximum likelihood estimator of the parameter $α$ is derived and a bias-correction that improves the estimator substantially is proposed. The properties of the bias-corrected estimator and four Bayesian estimators based on non-informative priors are evaluated in a simulation study.
Indirect inference estimators (i.e., simulation-based minimum distance estimators) in a parametric model that are based on auxiliary non-parametric maximum likelihood density estimators are shown to be asymptotically normal. If the parametric model is correctly specified, it is furthermore shown that the asymptotic variance-covariance matrix equals the inverse of the Fisher-information matrix. These results are based on uniform-in-parameters convergence rates and a uniform-in-parameters Donsker-type theorem for non-parametric maximum likelihood density estimators.
The three-parameter generalized extreme value distribution arises from classical univariate extreme value theory and is in common use for analyzing the far tail of observed phenomena. Curiously, important asymptotic properties of likelihood-based estimation under this standard model have yet to be established. In this paper, we formally prove that the maximum likelihood estimator is global and unique. An interesting secondary result entails the uniform consistency of a class of limit relations in a tight neighborhood of the shape parameter.
Composite likelihoods are a class of alternatives to the full likelihood which are widely used in many situations in which the likelihood itself is intractable. A composite likelihood may be computed without the need to specify the full distribution of the response, which means that in some situations the resulting estimator will be more robust to model misspecification than the maximum likelihood estimator. The purpose of this note is to show that such increased robustness is not guaranteed. An example is given in which various marginal composite likelihood estimators are inconsistent under m…
This paper explores Maximum Likelihood in parametric models in the context of Sanov type Large Deviation Probabilities. MLE in parametric models under weighted sampling is shown to be associated with the minimization of a specific divergence criterion defined with respect to the distribution of the weights. Some properties of the resulting inferential procedure are presented; Bahadur efficiency of tests are also considered in this context.
In the current paper, the estimation of the probability density function and the cumulative distribution function of the Topp-Leone distribution is considered. We derive the following estimators: maximum likelihood estimator, uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimator, percentile estimator, least squares estimator and weighted least squares estimator. A simulation study shows that the maximum likelihood estimator is more efficient than the others estimators.
We introduce the dispersion models with a regression structure to extend the generalized linear models, the exponential family nonlinear models (Cordeiro and Paula, 1989) and the proper dispersion models (Jørgensen, 1997a). We provide a matrix expression for the skewness of the maximum likelihood estimators of the regression parameters in dispersion models. The formula is suitable for computer implementation and can be applied for several important submodels discussed in the literature. Expressions for the skewness of the maximum likelihood estimators of the precision and dispersion parameters…
The use of {\it Mathematica} in deriving mean likelihood estimators is discussed. Comparisons between the maximum likelihood estimator, the mean likelihood estimator and the Bayes estimate based on a Jeffrey's noninformative prior using the criteria mean-square error and Pitman measure of closeness. Based on these criteria we find that for the first-order moving-average time series model, the mean likelihood estimator outperforms the maximum likelihood estimator and the Bayes estimator with a Jeffrey's noninformative prior. {\it Mathematica} was used for symbolic and numeric computations as we…
This paper deals with the problems of consistence and strong consistence of the maximum likelihood estimators of the mean and variance of the drift fractional Brownian motions observed at discrete time instants. A central limit theorem for these estimators is also obtained by using the Malliavin calculus.
Upper and lower class functions for the maximum likelihood estimator of the arrival and the service rates in a $GI/G/1$ queue are studied and the results are verified for M/M/1 queue.
We have shown in previous work that statistical inference for cooperative sequential adsorption model can be based on maximum likelihood estimation. In this paper we continue this research and establish asymptotic normality of the maximum likelihood estimator in thermodynamic limit. We also perform and discuss some numerical simulations of the model.
We consider the problem of estimating the joint distribution function of the event time and a continuous mark variable based on censored data. More specifically, the event time is subject to current status censoring and the continuous mark is only observed in case inspection takes place after the event time. The nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) in this model is known to be inconsistent. We propose and study an alternative likelihood based estimator, maximizing a smoothed log-likelihood, hence called a maximum smoothed likelihood estimator (MSLE). This estimator is shown to be w…
In finite mixtures of location-scale distributions, if there is no constraint or penalty on the parameters, then the maximum likelihood estimator does not exist because the likelihood is unbounded. To avoid this problem, we consider a penalized likelihood, where the penalty is a function of the minimum of the ratios of the scale parameters and the sample size. It is shown that the penalized maximum likelihood estimator is strongly consistent. We also analyze the consistency of a penalized maximum likelihood estimator where the penalty is imposed on the scale parameters themselves.
Maximum likelihood estimation has been extensively used in the joint analysis of repeated measurements and survival time. However, there is a lack of theoretical justification of the asymptotic properties for the maximum likelihood estimators. This paper intends to fill this gap. Specifically, we prove the consistency of the maximum likelihood estimators and derive their asymptotic distributions. The maximum likelihood estimators are shown to be semiparametrically efficient.
We prove the consistency and asymptotic normality of the Laplacian Quasi-Maximum Likelihood Estimator (QMLE) for a general class of causal time series including ARMA, AR($\infty$), GARCH, ARCH($\infty$), ARMA-GARCH, APARCH, ARMA-APARCH,..., processes. We notably exhibit the advantages (moment order and robustness) of this estimator compared to the classical Gaussian QMLE. Numerical simulations confirms the accuracy of this estimator.
We propose a class of estimators for the parameters of a GARCH(p,q) sequence. We show that our estimators are consistent and asymptotically normal under mild conditions. The quasi-maximum likelihood and the likelihood estimators are discussed in detail. We show that the maximum likelihood estimator is optimal. If the tail of the distribution of the innovations is polynomial, even a quasi-maximum likelihood estimator based on exponential density performs better than the standard normal density-based quasi-likelihood estimator of Lee and Hansen and Lumsdaine.
We consider statistical models driven by Gaussian and non-Gaussian self-similar processes with long memory and we construct maximum likelihood estimators (MLE) for the drift parameter. Our approach is based on the approximation by random walks of the driving noise. We study the asymptotic behavior of the estimators and we give some numerical simulations to illustrate our results.
In many complex statistical models maximum likelihood estimators cannot be calculated. In the paper we solve this problem using Markov chain Monte Carlo approximation of the true likelihood. In the main result we prove asymptotic normality of the estimator, when both sample sizes (the initial and Monte Carlo one) tend to infinity. Our result can be applied to models with intractable norming constants and missing data models.
Confidence intervals based on penalized maximum likelihood estimators such as the LASSO, adaptive LASSO, and hard-thresholding are analyzed. In the known-variance case, the finite-sample coverage properties of such intervals are determined and it is shown that symmetric intervals are the shortest. The length of the shortest intervals based on the hard-thresholding estimator is larger than the length of the shortest interval based on the adaptive LASSO, which is larger than the length of the shortest interval based on the LASSO, which in turn is larger than the standard interval based on the ma…
We study the distributions of the LASSO, SCAD, and thresholding estimators, in finite samples and in the large-sample limit. The asymptotic distributions are derived for both the case where the estimators are tuned to perform consistent model selection and for the case where the estimators are tuned to perform conservative model selection. Our findings complement those of Knight and Fu (2000) and Fan and Li (2001). We show that the distributions are typically highly nonnormal regardless of how the estimator is tuned, and that this property persists in large samples. The uniform convergence rat…
This paper deals with multivariate Gaussian models for which the covariance matrix is a Kronecker product of two matrices. We consider maximum likelihood estimation of the model parameters, in particular of the covariance matrix. There is no explicit expression for the maximum likelihood estimator of a Kronecker product covariance matrix. The main question in this paper is whether the maximum likelihood estimator of the covariance matrix exists and if it is unique. The answers are different for different models that we consider.
In this note, we propose a new approach for the proof of the consistency and normality of the maximum likelihood estimator for nonlinear AR processes with markov-switching under the assumptions of uniform exponential forgetting of the prediction filter and $α$-mixing property. We show that in the linear and Gaussian case our assumptions are fully satisfied.
This paper deals with a general class of observation-driven time series models with a special focus on time series of counts. We provide conditions under which there exist strict-sense stationary and ergodic versions of such processes. The consistency of the maximum likelihood estimators is then derived for well- specified and misspecified models.
We consider the Grenander estimator that is the maximum likelihood estimator for non-increasing densities. We prove uniform central limit theorems for certain subclasses of bounded variation functions and for Hölder balls of smoothness s>1/2. We do not assume that the density is differentiable or continuous. The proof can be seen as an adaptation of the method for the parametric maximum likelihood estimator to the nonparametric setting. Since nonparametric maximum likelihood estimators lie on the boundary, the derivative of the likelihood cannot be expected to equal zero as in the parametric c…
The change-plane Cox model is a popular tool for the subgroup analysis of survival data. Despite the rich literature on this model, there has been limited investigation into the asymptotic properties of the estimators of the finite-dimensional parameter. Particularly, the convergence rate, not to mention the asymptotic distribution, has not been fully characterized for the general model where classification is based on multiple covariates. To bridge this theoretical gap, this study proposes a maximum smoothed partial likelihood estimator and establishes the following asymptotic properties. Fir…
Some quasi-arithmetic means of random variables easily give unbiased strongly consistent closed-form estimators of the joint of the location and scale parameters of the Cauchy distribution. The one-step estimators of those quasi-arithmetic means of the Cauchy distribution are considered. We establish the Bahadur efficiency of the maximum likelihood estimator and the one-step estimators. We also show that the rate of the convergence of the mean-squared errors achieves the Cramer-Rao bound. Our results are also applicable to the circular Cauchy distribution.
Asymptotic Theory for Restricted Maximum Likelihood Estimators in Generalized Linear Mixed Models
School of Systems and Computing, University of New South Wales(新南威尔士大学系统计算学院);UNSW Data Science Hub(新南威尔士大学数据科学中心);School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of New South Wales(新南威尔士大学数学与统计学院)
This paper establishes the almost sure convergence and asymptotic normality of levels and differenced quasi maximum-likelihood (QML) estimators of dynamic panel data models. The QML estimators are robust with respect to initial conditions, conditional and time-series heteroskedasticity, and misspecification of the log-likelihood. The paper also provides an ECME algorithm for calculating levels QML estimates. Finally, it uses Monte Carlo experiments to compare the finite sample performance of levels and differenced QML estimators, the differenced GMM estimator, and the system GMM estimator. In …
The vanilla method in univariate extreme-value theory consists of fitting the three-parameter Generalized Extreme-Value (GEV) distribution to a sample of block maxima. Despite claims to the contrary, the asymptotic normality of the maximum likelihood estimator has never been established. In this paper, a formal proof is given using a general result on the maximum likelihood estimator for parametric families that are differentiable in quadratic mean but whose supports depend on the parameter. An interesting side result concerns the (lack of) differentiability in quadratic mean of the GEV family…
In this paper, we propose methods for the estimation of parameters for the three-parameter Reflected Weibull distribution. The Moment estimator , Maximum likelihood estimator and Location and Scale Parameters free maximum likelihood estimator. The Location and Scale Parameters free maximum likelihood estimator is based on a data transformation, which avoids the problem of unbounded likelihood estimator. Through Mont Carlo simulations, we further show that the Location and Scale Parameters free maximum likelihood estimator performs better than methods moment and maximum likelihood estimator in …
In this paper, we compare maximum likelihood (ML), quasi likelihood (QL) and weighted least squares (WLS) estimators for proportional error nonlinear regression models. Literature on thermoluminescence sedimentary dating revealed another estimator similar to weighted least squares but observed responses used as weights. This estimator that we refer to as data weighted least squares (DWLS) is also included in the comparison. We show that on the order $σ, $ all four estimators behave similar to ordinary least squares estimators for standard linear regression models. On the order of $σ^2, $ the e…
In this paper, we study the asymptotic normality of the conditional maximum likelihood (ML) estimators for the truncated regression model and the Tobit model. We show that under the general setting assumed in his book, the conjectures made by Hayashi (2000) \footnote{see page 516, and page 520 of Hayashi (2000).} about the asymptotic normality of the conditional ML estimators for both models are true, namely, a sufficient condition is the nonsingularity of $\mathbf{x_tx'_t}$.
This work studies the statistical properties of the maximum penalized likelihood approach in a semi-parametric framework. We recall the penalized likelihood approach for estimating a function and review some asymptotic results. We investigate the properties of two estimators of the variance of maximum penalized likelihood estimators: sandwich estimator and a Bayesian estimator. The coverage rates of confidence intervals based on these estimators are studied through a simulation study of survival data. In a first simulation the coverage rates for the survival function and the hazard function ar…
The asymptotic normality of the Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE) is a long established result. Explicit bounds for the distributional distance between the distribution of the MLE and the normal distribution have recently been obtained for the case of independent random variables. In this paper, a local dependence structure is introduced between the random variables and we give upper bounds which are specified for the Wasserstein metric.
We study asymptotic properties of maximum likelihood estimators for Heston models based on continuous time observations of the log-price process. We distinguish three cases: subcritical (also called ergodic), critical and supercritical. In the subcritical case, asymptotic normality is proved for all the parameters, while in the critical and supercritical cases, non-standard asymptotic behavior is described.