We study nonparametric density estimation in non-stationary drift settings. Given a sequence of independent samples taken from a distribution that gradually changes in time, the goal is to compute the best estimate for the current distribution. We prove tight minimax risk bounds for both discrete and continuous smooth densities, where the minimum is over all possible estimates and the maximum is over all possible distributions that satisfy the drift constraints. Our technique handles a broad class of drift models, and generalizes previous results on agnostic learning under drift.
In this paper, we consider the robust adaptive non parametric estimation problem for the drift coefficient in diffusion processes. An adaptive model selection procedure, based on the improved weighted least square estimates, is proposed. Sharp oracle inequalities for the robust risk have been obtained.
We consider the problem of nonparametric estimation of the drift of a continuously observed one-dimensional diffusion with periodic drift. Motivated by computational considerations, van der Meulen e.a. (2014) defined a prior on the drift as a randomly truncated and randomly scaled Faber-Schauder series expansion with Gaussian coefficients. We study the behaviour of the posterior obtained from the prior from a frequentist asymptotic point of view. If the true data generating drift is smooth, it is proved that the posterior is adaptive with posterior contraction rates for the $L_2$-norm that are…
Nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation is intended to infer the unknown density distribution while making as few assumptions as possible. To alleviate the over parameterization in nonparametric data fitting, smoothing assumptions are usually merged into the estimation. In this paper a novel boosting-based method is introduced to the nonparametric estimation in univariate cases. We deduce the boosting algorithm by the second-order approximation of nonparametric log-likelihood. Gaussian kernel and smooth spline are chosen as weak learners in boosting to satisfy the smoothing assumptions. Si…
Density Estimation is one of the central areas of statistics whose purpose is to estimate the probability density function underlying the observed data. It serves as a building block for many tasks in statistical inference, visualization, and machine learning. Density Estimation is widely adopted in the domain of unsupervised learning especially for the application of clustering. As big data become pervasive in almost every area of data sciences, analyzing high-dimensional data that have many features and variables appears to be a major focus in both academia and industry. High-dimensional dat…
Distributed minimax estimation and distributed adaptive estimation under communication constraints for Gaussian sequence model and white noise model are studied. The minimax rate of convergence for distributed estimation over a given Besov class, which serves as a benchmark for the cost of adaptation, is established. We then quantify the exact communication cost for adaptation and construct an optimally adaptive procedure for distributed estimation over a range of Besov classes. The results demonstrate significant differences between nonparametric function estimation in the distributed setting…
SISSA（国际高等研究学院）；INFN Sezione di Trieste（意大利国家核物理研究所的里雅斯特分部）；University of Camerino（卡梅里诺大学）
We introduce a new nonparametric density estimator inspired by Markov Chains, and generalizing the well-known Kernel Density Estimator (KDE). Our estimator presents several benefits with respect to the usual ones and can be used straightforwardly as a foundation in all density-based algorithms. We prove the consistency of our estimator and we find it typically outperforms KDE in situations of large sample size and high dimensionality. We also employ our density estimator to build a local outlier detector, showing very promising results when applied to some realistic datasets.
Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University（耶鲁大学考尔斯经济学研究基金会）；George Washington University（乔治华盛顿大学）
We study the off-policy evaluation (OPE) problem in an infinite-horizon Markov decision process with continuous states and actions. We recast the $Q$-function estimation into a special form of the nonparametric instrumental variables (NPIV) estimation problem. We first show that under one mild condition the NPIV formulation of $Q$-function estimation is well-posed in the sense of $L^2$-measure of ill-posedness with respect to the data generating distribution, bypassing a strong assumption on the discount factor $γ$ imposed in the recent literature for obtaining the $L^2$ convergence rates of v…
This manuscript is a supplemental document providing the omitted material for our paper entitled "Nonparametric kernel estimation of the probability density function of regression errors using estimated residuals" [arXiv:1010.0439]. The paper is submitted to Journal of Nonparametric Statistics.
An adaptive nonparametric estimation procedure is constructed for the estimation problem of heteroscedastic regression when the noise variance depends on the unknown regression. A non-asymptotic upper bound for a quadratic risk (an oracle inequality) is constructed.
The paper deals with the nonparametric estimation problem at a given fixed point for an autoregressive model with unknown distributed noise. Kernel estimate modifications are proposed. Asymptotic minimax and efficiency properties for proposed estimators are shown.
This paper is devoted to the nonparametric estimation of the derivative of the regression function in a nonparametric regression model. We implement a very efficient and easy to handle statistical procedure based on the derivative of the recursive Nadaraya-Watson estimator. We establish the almost sure convergence as well as the asymptotic normality for our estimates. We also illustrate our nonparametric estimation procedure on simulated and real life data associated with sea shores water quality and valvometry.
We study the nonparametric Nadaraya-Watson estimator of the drift function for ergodic stochastic processes driven by fractional Brownian motion of Hurst parameter H > 1/2. The estimator is based on the discretely observed stochastic processes. By using the ergodic properties and stochastic integral, we obtain the consistency of the proposed estimator.
The paper deals with asymptotic properties of the adaptive procedure proposed in the author paper (2007) for estimation of unknown nonparametric regression. We prove that this procedure is asymptotically efficient for a quadratic risk. It means that the asymptotic quadratic risk for this procedure coincides with a sharp lower bound.
We investigate the asymptotic properties of a kernel-type nonparametric estimator of the linear multiplier in models governed by a stochastic differential equation driven by a general Gaussian process.
This paper deals with the consistency, a rate of convergence and the asymptotic distribution of a nonparametric estimator of the trend in the Skorokhod reflection problem defined by a fractional SDE and a Moreau sweeping process.
We establish the asymptotic normality of the kernel type estimator for the regression function constructed from quasi-associated data when the explanatory variable takes its values in a separable Hilbert space.
In the era of big data, it is necessary to split extremely large data sets across multiple computing nodes and construct estimators using the distributed data. When designing distributed estimators, it is desirable to minimize the amount of communication across the network because transmission between computers is slow in comparison to computations in a single computer. Our work provides a general framework for understanding the behavior of distributed estimation under communication constraints for nonparametric problems. We provide results for a broad class of models, moving beyond the Gaussi…
We study the nonparametric estimation for the intensity of Poisson random measure in jump-diffusion CIR model based on the low frequency observations. This is given in terms of the minimization of norms on a nonempty, closed and convex subset of some special Hilbert space. We establish the measurability of the estimator and derive its consistency and asymptotic risk bound.
We study the nonparametric estimators of the infinitesimal coefficients of the second-order jump-diffusion models. Under the mild conditions, we obtain the weak consistency and the asymptotic normalities of the estimators.
We consider nonparametric statistical inference for Lévy processes sampled irregularly, at low frequency. The estimation of the jump dynamics as well as the estimation of the distributional density are investigated. Non-asymptotic risk bounds are derived and the corresponding rates of convergence are discussed under global as well as local regularity assumptions. Moreover, minimax optimality is proved for the estimator of the jump measure. Some numerical examples are given to illustrate the practical performance of the estimation procedure.
We consider nonparametric estimation of $L_2$, Renyi-$α$ and Tsallis-$α$ divergences between continuous distributions. Our approach is to construct estimators for particular integral functionals of two densities and translate them into divergence estimators. For the integral functionals, our estimators are based on corrections of a preliminary plug-in estimator. We show that these estimators achieve the parametric convergence rate of $n^{-1/2}$ when the densities' smoothness, $s$, are both at least $d/4$ where $d$ is the dimension. We also derive minimax lower bounds for this problem which con…
We propose nonparametric estimation of divergence measures between continuous distributions. Our approach is based on a plug-in kernel- type estimators of density functions. We give the uniform in bandwidth consistency for the proposal estimators. As a consequence, their asymp- totic 100% confidence intervals are also provided.
Nonparametric identification and maximum likelihood estimation for finite-state hidden Markov models are investigated. We obtain identification of the parameters as well as the order of the Markov chain if the transition probability matrices have full-rank and are ergodic, and if the state-dependent distributions are all distinct, but not necessarily linearly independent. Based on this identification result, we develop nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation theory. First, we show that the asymptotic contrast, the Kullback--Leibler divergence of the hidden Markov model, identifies the true…
We consider nonparametric estimation for functional autoregressive processes with Markov switching. First, we study the case where complete data is available; i.e. when we observe the Markov switching regime. Then we estimate the regression function in each regime using a Nadaraya-Watson type estimator. Second, we introduce a nonparametric recursive algorithm in the case of hidden Markov switching regime. Our algorithm restores the missing data by means of a Monte-Carlo step and estimate the regression function via a Robbins-Monro step. Consistency of the estimators are proved in both cases. F…
Confidence intervals and joint confidence sets are constructed for the nonparametric calibration of exponential Lévy models based on prices of European options. To this end, we show joint asymptotic normality in the spectral calibration method for the estimators of the volatility, the drift, the jump intensity and the Lévy density at finitely many points.
This paper deals with the nonparametric density estimation of the regression error term assuming its independence with the covariate. The difference between the feasible estimator which uses the estimated residuals and the unfeasible one using the true residuals is studied. An optimal choice of the bandwidth used to estimate the residuals is given. We also study the asymptotic normality of the feasible kernel estimator and its rate-optimality.
For the problem of nonparametric estimation of signal in Gaussian noise we point out the strong asymptotically minimax estimators on maxisets for linear estimators (see \cite{ker93,rio}). It turns out that the order of rates of convergence of Pinsker estimator on this maxisets is worse than the order of rates of convergence for the class of linear estimators considered on this maxisets. We show that balls in Sobolev spaces are maxisets for Pinsker estimators.
This article investigates nonparametric estimation of variance functions for functional data when the mean function is unknown. We obtain asymptotic results for the kernel estimator based on squared residuals. Similar to the finite dimensional case, our asymptotic result shows the smoothness of the unknown mean function has an effect on the rate of convergence. Our simulaton studies demonstrate that estimator based on residuals performs much better than that based on conditional second moment of the responses.
We study a class of nonlinear nonparametric inverse problems. Specifically, we propose a nonparametric estimator of the dynamics of a monotonically increasing trajectory defined on a finite time interval. Under suitable regularity conditions, we prove consistency of the proposed estimator and show that in terms of $L^2$-loss, the optimal rate of convergence for the proposed estimator is the same as that for the estimation of the derivative of a trajectory. This is a new contribution to the area of nonlinear nonparametric inverse problems. We conduct a simulation study to examine the finite sam…
We study minimax convergence rates of nonparametric density estimation under a large class of loss functions called "adversarial losses", which, besides classical $\mathcal{L}^p$ losses, includes maximum mean discrepancy (MMD), Wasserstein distance, and total variation distance. These losses are closely related to the losses encoded by discriminator networks in generative adversarial networks (GANs). In a general framework, we study how the choice of loss and the assumed smoothness of the underlying density together determine the minimax rate. We also discuss implications for training GANs bas…
Motivated by finance and technical applications, the objective of this paper is to consider adaptive estimation of regression and density distribution based on Fourier-Legendre expansion, and construction of confidence intervals - also adaptive. The estimators are asymptotically optimal and adaptive in the sense that they can adapt to unknown smoothness.
We introduce and study a local linear nonparametric regression estimator for censorship model. The main goal of this paper is, to establish the uniform almost sure consistency result with rate over a compact set for the new estimate. To support our theoretical result, a simulation study has been done to make comparison with the classical regression estimator.
We investigate the nonparametric estimation for regression in a fixed-design setting when the errors are given by a field of dependent random variables. Sufficient conditions for kernel estimators to converge uniformly are obtained. These estimators can attain the optimal rates of uniform convergence and the results apply to a large class of random fields which contains martingale-difference random fields and mixing random fields.
We discuss nonparametric estimators of the distribution of the incubation time of a disease. The classical approach in these models is to use parametric families like Weibull, log-normal or gamma in the estimation procedure. We analyze instead the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) and show that, under some conditions, its rate of convergence is cube root $n$ and that its limit behavior is given by Chernoff's distribution. We also study smooth estimates, based on the MLE. The density estimates, based on the MLE, are capable of catching finer or unexpected aspects of the density, …
We propose a nonparametric estimation for a class of fractional stochastic differential equations (FSDE) with random effects. We precisely consider general linear fractional stochastic differential equations with drift depending on random effects and non-random diffusion. We build ordinary kernel estimators and histogram estimators and study their Lp-risk (p =1 or 2), when H>1/2. Asymptotic results are evaluated as both T = T(N) and N tend to infinity.
Since Stein's 1956 seminal paper, shrinkage has played a fundamental role in both parametric and nonparametric inference. This article discusses minimaxity and adaptive minimaxity in nonparametric function estimation. Three interrelated problems, function estimation under global integrated squared error, estimation under pointwise squared error, and nonparametric confidence intervals, are considered. Shrinkage is pivotal in the development of both the minimax theory and the adaptation theory. While the three problems are closely connected and the minimax theories bear some similarities, the ad…
In this paper we consider multivariate Hawkes processes with baseline hazard and kernel functions that depend on time. This defines a class of locally stationary processes. We discuss estimation of the time-dependent baseline hazard and kernel functions based on a localized criterion. Theory on stationary Hawkes processes is extended to develop asymptotic theory for the estimator in the locally stationary model.
A Bayesian nonparametric estimator to entropy is proposed. The derivation of the new estimator relies on using the Dirichlet process and adapting the well-known frequentist estimators of Vasicek (1976) and Ebrahimi, Pflughoeft and Soofi (1994). Several theoretical properties, such as consistency, of the proposed estimator are obtained. The quality of the proposed estimator has been investigated through several examples, in which it exhibits excellent performance.
In this paper, nonparametric estimation of the conditional Weibull-tail coefficient when the variable of interest is right random censored is addressed. A Weissman-type estimator of conditional extreme quantile is also proposed. In addition, a simulation study is conducted to assess the finite-sample behavior of the proposed estimators and a comparison with alternative strategies is provided. Finally, the practical applicability of the methodology is presented using a real datasets of men suffering from a larynx cancer.
This paper considers hidden Markov models where the observations are given as the sum of a latent state which lies in a general state space and some independent noise with unknown distribution. It is shown that these fully nonparametric translation models are identifiable with respect to both the distribution of the latent variables and the distribution of the noise, under mostly a light tail assumption on the latent variables. Two nonparametric estimation methods are proposed and we prove that the corresponding estimators are consistent for the weak convergence topology. These results are ill…
Mutual information is a well-known tool to measure the mutual dependence between variables. In this paper, a Bayesian nonparametric estimation of mutual information is established by means of the Dirichlet process and the $k$-nearest neighbor distance. As a direct outcome of the estimation, an easy-to-implement test of independence is introduced through the relative belief ratio. Several theoretical properties of the approach are presented. The procedure is investigated through various examples where the results are compared to its frequentist counterpart and demonstrate a good performance.
In this article, we consider the estimation of the marginal distributions for pairs of data are recorded, with unobserved order in each pair. New estimators are proposed and their asymptotic properties are established, by proving a Glivenko-Cantelli theorem and a functional central limit result. Results from a simulation study are included and we illustrate the applicability of the method on the homologous chromosomes data.
Tsallis entropy is a generalized diversity index first derived in Patil and Taillie (1982) and then rediscovered in community ecology by Keylock (2005). Bayesian nonparametric estimation of Shannon entropy and Simpson's diversity under uniform and symmetric Dirichlet priors has been already advocated as an alternative to maximum likelihood estimation based on frequency counts, which is negatively biased in the undersampled regime. Here we present a fully general Bayesian nonparametric estimation of the whole class of Tsallis diversity indices under Gnedin-Pitman priors, a large family of rando…
Stochastic volatility modelling of financial processes has become increasingly popular. The proposed models usually contain a stationary volatility process. We will motivate and review several nonparametric methods for estimation of the density of the volatility process. Both models based on discretely sampled continuous time processes and discrete time models will be discussed. The key insight for the analysis is a transformation of the volatility density estimation problem to a deconvolution model for which standard methods exist. Three type of nonparametric density estimators are reviewed: …
We define a new bandwidth-dependent kernel density estimator that improves existing convergence rates for the bias, and preserves that of the variation, when the error is measured in $L_1$. No additional assumptions are imposed to the extant literature.
In this paper we study the problem of pointwise density estimation from observations with multiplicative measurement errors. We elucidate the main feature of this problem: the influence of the estimation point on the estimation accuracy. In particular, we show that, depending on whether this point is separated away from zero or not, there are two different regimes in terms of the rates of convergence of the minimax risk. In both regimes we develop kernel--type density estimators and prove upper bounds on their maximal risk over suitable nonparametric classes of densities. We show that the prop…
This paper presents a nonparametric method for estimating the conditional density associated to the jump rate of a piecewise-deterministic Markov process. In our framework, the estimation needs only one observation of the process within a long time interval. Our method relies on a generalization of Aalen's multiplicative intensity model. We prove the uniform consistency of our estimator, under some reasonable assumptions related to the primitive characteristics of the process. A simulation example illustrates the behavior of our estimator.
In a multiple testing context, we consider a semiparametric mixture model with two components where one component is known and corresponds to the distribution of $p$-values under the null hypothesis and the other component $f$ is nonparametric and stands for the distribution under the alternative hypothesis. Motivated by the issue of local false discovery rate estimation, we focus here on the estimation of the nonparametric unknown component $f$ in the mixture, relying on a preliminary estimator of the unknown proportion $θ$ of true null hypotheses. We propose and study the asymptotic properti…
This paper applies the recently axiomatized Optimum Information Principle (minimize the Kullback-Leibler information subject to all relevant information) to nonparametric density estimation, which provides a theoretical foundation as well as a computational algorithm for maximum entropy density estimation. The estimator, called optimum information estimator, approximates the true density arbitrarily well. As a by-product I obtain a measure of goodness of fit of parametric models (both conditional and unconditional) and an absolute criterion for model selection, as opposed to other conventional…
For nonparametric regression with one-sided errors and a boundary curve model for Poisson point processes we consider the problem of efficient estimation for linear functionals. The minimax optimal rate is obtained by an unbiased estimation method which nevertheless depends on a Hölder condition or monotonicity assumption for the underlying regression or boundary function. We first construct a simple blockwise estimator and then build up a nonparametric maximum-likelihood approach for exponential noise variables and the point process model. In that approach also non-asymptotic efficiency is ob…
In this paper we consider the nonparametric estimation of density and regression functions with non-negative support using a gamma kernel procedure introduced by Chen (2000). Strong uniform consistency and asymptotic normality of the corresponding estimators are established under a general ergodic assumption on the data generation process. Our results generalize those of Shi and Song (2016), obtained in the classic i.i.d. framework, and the works of Bouezmarni and Rombouts (2008, 2010b) and Gospodinov and Hirukawa (2007) for mixing time series.
We consider settings where data are available on a nonparametric function and various partial derivatives. Such circumstances arise in practice, for example in the joint estimation of cost and input functions in economics. We show that when derivative data are available, local averages can be replaced in certain dimensions by nonlocal averages, thus reducing the nonparametric dimension of the problem. We derive optimal rates of convergence and conditions under which dimension reduction is achieved. Kernel estimators and their properties are analyzed, although other estimators, such as local po…
In this paper, we consider the filtering and smoothing recursions in nonparametric finite state space hidden Markov models (HMMs) when the parameters of the model are unknown and replaced by estimators. We provide an explicit and time uniform control of the filtering and smoothing errors in total variation norm as a function of the parameter estimation errors. We prove that the risk for the filtering and smoothing errors may be uniformly upper bounded by the risk of the estimators. It has been proved very recently that statistical inference for finite state space nonparametric HMMs is possible…
