We propose a novel neural network architecture that enables non-parametric calibration and generation of multivariate extreme value distributions (MEVs). MEVs arise from Extreme Value Theory (EVT) as the necessary class of models when extrapolating a distributional fit over large spatial and temporal scales based on data observed in intermediate scales. In turn, EVT dictates that $d$-max-decreasing, a stronger form of convexity, is an essential shape constraint in the characterization of MEVs. As far as we know, our proposed architecture provides the first class of non-parametric estimators for MEVs that preserve these essential shape constraints. We show that our architecture approximates the dependence structure encoded by MEVs at parametric rate. Moreover, we present a new method for sampling high-dimensional MEVs using a generative model. We demonstrate our methodology on a wide range of experimental settings, ranging from environmental sciences to financial mathematics and verify that the structural properties of MEVs are retained compared to existing methods.
We investigate the behavior of the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator $\hat{f}_n$ for a decreasing density $f$ near the boundaries of the support of $f$. We establish the limiting distribution of $\hat{f}_n(n^{-α})$, where we need to distinguish between different values of $0<α<1$. Similar results are obtained for the upper endpoint of the support, in the case it is finite. This yields consistent estimators for the values of $f$ at the boundaries of the support. The limit distribution of these estimators is established and their performance is compared with the penalized maximum likeli…
In this paper we introduce a new lifetime distribution by compounding exponential and Poisson-Lindley distributions, named exponential Poisson-Lindley distribution. Several properties are derived, such as density, failure rate, mean lifetime, moments, order statistics and Rényi entropy. Furthermore, estimation by maximum likelihood and inference for large sample are discussed. The paper is motivated by two applications to real data sets and we hope that this model be able to attract wider applicability in survival and reliability.
Max-stable distributions and processes are important models for extreme events and the assessment of tail risks. The full, multivariate likelihood of a parametric max-stable distribution is complicated and only recent advances enable its use. The asymptotic properties of the maximum likelihood estimator in multivariate extremes are mostly unknown. In this paper we provide natural conditions on the exponent function and the angular measure of the max-stable distribution that ensure asymptotic normality of the estimator. We show the effectiveness of this result by applying it to popular parametr…
In this paper, we proposed a new lifetime distribution namely generalized weighted Lindley (GLW) distribution. The GLW distribution is a useful generalization of the weighted Lindley distribution, which accommodates increasing, decreasing, decreasing-increasing-decreasing, bathtub, or unimodal hazard functions, making the GWL distribution a flexible model for reliability data. A significant account of mathematical properties of the new distribution are presented. Different estimation procedures are also given such as, maximum likelihood estimators, method of moments, ordinary and weighted leas…
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…
The core of the classical block maxima method consists of fitting an extreme value distribution to a sample of maxima over blocks extracted from an underlying series. In asymptotic theory, it is usually postulated that the block maxima are an independent random sample of an extreme value distribution. In practice however, block sizes are finite, so that the extreme value postulate will only hold approximately. A more accurate asymptotic framework is that of a triangular array of block maxima, the block size depending on the size of the underlying sample in such a way that both the block size a…
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.
For a skew normal random sequence, convergence rates of the distribution of its partial maximum to the Gumbel extreme value distribution are derived. The asymptotic expansion of the distribution of the normalized maximum is given under an optimal choice of norming constants. We find that the optimal convergence rate of the normalized maximum to the Gumbel extreme value distribution is proportional to $1/\log n$.
Let $X_1,...,X_n$ be iid random vectors and $f\ge 0$ be a non-negative function. Let also $k(n) = {\rm Argmax}_{i=1,...,n} f(X_i)$. We are interested in the distribution of $X_{k(n)}$ and their limit theorems. In other words, what is the distribution the random vector where a function of its components is extreme? This question is motivated by a kind of inverse problem where one wants to determine the extremal behavior of $X$ when only explicitly observing $f(X)$. We shall refer to such types of results as to implicit extremes. It turns out that, as in the usual case of explicit extremes, all …
In modeling spatial extremes, the dependence structure is classically inferred by assuming that block maxima derive from max-stable processes. Weather stations provide daily records rather than just block maxima. The point process approach for univariate extreme value analysis, which uses more historical data and is preferred by some practitioners, does not adapt easily to the spatial setting. We propose a two-step approach with a composite likelihood that utilizes site-wise daily records in addition to block maxima. The procedure separates the estimation of marginal parameters and dependence …
Analysis of the rare and extreme values through statistical modeling is an important issue in economical crises, climate forecasting, and risk management of financial portfolios. Extreme value theory provides the probability models needed for statistical modeling of the extreme values. There are generally two ways to identifying the extreme values in a data set, the block-maxima and the peak-over threshold method. The block-maxima method uses the Generalized Extreme Value distribution and the peak-over threshold method uses the Generalized Pareto distribution. It is common that the location of…
We study a new estimator for the tail index of a distribution in the Frechet domain of attraction that arises naturally by computing subsample maxima. This estimator is equivalent to taking a U-statistic over a Hill estimator with two order statistics. The estimator presents multiple advantages over the Hill estimator. In particular, it has asymptotically smooth sample paths as a function of the threshold k, making it considerably more stable than the Hill estimator. The estimator also admits a simple and intuitive threshold selection rule that does not require fitting a second-order model. Jo…
The area-characteristic, maximum possible earthquake magnitude $T_M$ is required by the earthquake engineering community, disaster management agencies and the insurance industry. The Gutenberg-Richter law predicts that earthquake magnitudes $M$ follow a truncated exponential distribution. In the geophysical literature several estimation procedures were proposed, see for instance Kijko and Singh (Acta Geophys., 2011) and the references therein. Estimation of $T_M$ is of course an extreme value problem to which the classical methods for endpoint estimation could be applied. We argue that recent …
The classical multivariate extreme-value theory concerns the modeling of extremes in a multivariate random sample, suggesting the use of max-stable distributions. In this work, the classical theory is extended to the case where aggregated data, such as maxima of a random number of observations, are considered. We derive a limit theorem concerning the attractors for the distributions of the aggregated data, which boil down to a new family of max-stable distributions. We also connect the extremal dependence structure of classical max-stable distributions and that of our new family of max-stable …
A new method is proposed for modelling the yearly maxima of sub-daily precipitation, with the aim of producing spatial maps of return level estimates. Yearly precipitation maxima are modelled using a Bayesian hierarchical model with a latent Gaussian field, with the blended generalised extreme value (bGEV) distribution used as a substitute for the more standard generalised extreme value (GEV) distribution. Inference is made less wasteful with a novel two-step procedure that performs separate modelling of the scale parameter of the bGEV distribution using peaks over threshold data. Fast inferen…
Consider a random sample from a bivariate distribution function $F$ in the max-domain of attraction of an extreme-value distribution function $G$. This $G$ is characterized by two extreme-value indices and a spectral measure, the latter determining the tail dependence structure of $F$. A major issue in multivariate extreme-value theory is the estimation of the spectral measure $Φ_p$ with respect to the $L_p$ norm. For every $p\in[1,\infty]$, a nonparametric maximum empirical likelihood estimator is proposed for $Φ_p$. The main novelty is that these estimators are guaranteed to satisfy the mome…
The maximum product of spacings (MPS) is employed in the estimation of the Generalized Extreme Value Distribution (GEV) and the Generalized Pareto Distribution (GPD). Efficient estimators are obtained by the MPS for all $γ$. This outperforms the maximum likelihood method which is only valid for $γ<1$. It is then shown that the MPS gives estimators closer to the true parameters compared to the maximum likelihood estimates (MLE) in a simulation study. In cases where sample sizes are small, the MPS performs stably while the MLE does not. The performance of MPS estimators is also more stable than …
The distribution of block maxima of sequences of independent and identically-distributed random variables is used to model extreme values in many disciplines. The traditional extreme value (EV) theory derives a closed-form expression for the distribution of block maxima under asymptotic assumptions, and is generally fitted using annual maxima or excesses over a high threshold, thereby discarding a large fraction of the available observations. The recently-introduced Metastatistical Extreme Value Distribution (MEVD), a non-asymptotic formulation based on doubly stochastic distributions, has bee…
The extreme value index is a fundamental parameter in univariate Extreme Value Theory (EVT). It captures the tail behavior of a distribution and is central in the extrapolation beyond observed data. Among other semi-parametric methods (such as the popular Hill's estimator), the Block Maxima (BM) and Peaks-Over-Threshold (POT) methods are widely used for assessing the extreme value index and related normalizing constants. We provide asymptotic theory for the maximum likelihood estimators (MLE) based on the BM method. Our main result is the asymptotic normality of the MLE with a non-trivial bias…
The analysis of spatial extremes requires the joint modeling of a spatial process at a large number of stations and max-stable processes have been developed as a class of stochastic processes suitable for studying spatial extremes. Spatial dependence structure in the extreme value analysis can be measured by max-stable processes. However, there have been few works on the threshold approach of max-stable processes. We propose a threshold version of max-stable process estimation and we apply the pairwise composite likelihood method by Padoan et al. (2010) to estimate spatial dependence parameter…
Multivariate extreme value statistical analysis is concerned with observations on several variables which are thought to possess some degree of tail-dependence. In areas such as the modeling of financial and insurance risks, or as the modeling of spatial variables, extreme value models in high dimensions (up to fifty or more) with their statistical inference procedures are needed. In this paper, we consider max-stable models for which the spectral random vectors have absolutely continuous distributions. For random samples with max-stable distributions we provide quasi-explicit analytical expre…
It is often reasonable to assume that the dependence structure of a bivariate continuous distribution belongs to the class of extreme-value copulas. The latter are characterized by their Pickands dependence function. In this paper, a procedure is proposed for testing whether this function belongs to a given parametric family. The test is based on a Cramér--von Mises statistic measuring the distance between an estimate of the parametric Pickands dependence function and either one of two nonparametric estimators thereof studied by Genest and Segers [Ann. Statist. 37 (2009) 2990--3022]. As the li…
Max-stable processes are a common choice for modelling spatial extreme data as they arise naturally as the infinite-dimensional generalisation of multivariate extreme value theory. Statistical inference for such models is complicated by the intractability of the multivariate density function. Nonparametric, composite likelihood-based, and Bayesian approaches have been proposed to address this difficulty. More recently, a simulation-based approach using approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) has been employed for estimating parameters of max-stable models. ABC algorithms rely on the evaluation …
The block maxima method in extreme-value analysis proceeds by fitting an extreme-value distribution to a sample of block maxima extracted from an observed stretch of a time series. The method is usually validated under two simplifying assumptions: the block maxima should be distributed according to an extreme-value distribution and the sample of block maxima should be independent. Both assumptions are only approximately true. For general triangular arrays of block maxima attracted to the Fréchet distribution, consistency and asymptotic normality is established for the maximum likelihood estima…
Max-stable processes have proved to be useful for the statistical modelling of spatial extremes. Several representations of max-stable random fields have been proposed in the literature. For statistical inference it is often assumed that there is no temporal dependence, i.e., the observations at spatial locations are independent in time. We use two representations of stationary max-stable spatial random fields and extend the concepts to the space-time domain. In a first approach, we extend the idea of constructing max-stable random fields as limits of normalized and rescaled pointwise maxima o…
This paper is devoted to the study of the max K-armed bandit problem, which consists in sequentially allocating resources in order to detect extreme values. Our contribution is twofold. We first significantly refine the analysis of the ExtremeHunter algorithm carried out in Carpentier and Valko (2014), and next propose an alternative approach, showing that, remarkably, Extreme Bandits can be reduced to a classical version of the bandit problem to a certain extent. Beyond the formal analysis, these two approaches are compared through numerical experiments.
