11,690 research outputs found
Sparse Covers for Sums of Indicators
For all , we show that the set of Poisson Binomial
distributions on variables admits a proper -cover in total
variation distance of size ,
which can also be computed in polynomial time. We discuss the implications of
our construction for approximation algorithms and the computation of
approximate Nash equilibria in anonymous games.Comment: PTRF, to appea
On the Structure, Covering, and Learning of Poisson Multinomial Distributions
An -Poisson Multinomial Distribution (PMD) is the distribution of the
sum of independent random vectors supported on the set of standard basis vectors in . We prove
a structural characterization of these distributions, showing that, for all
, any -Poisson multinomial random vector is
-close, in total variation distance, to the sum of a discretized
multidimensional Gaussian and an independent -Poisson multinomial random vector. Our structural characterization extends
the multi-dimensional CLT of Valiant and Valiant, by simultaneously applying to
all approximation requirements . In particular, it overcomes
factors depending on and, importantly, the minimum eigenvalue of the
PMD's covariance matrix from the distance to a multidimensional Gaussian random
variable.
We use our structural characterization to obtain an -cover, in
total variation distance, of the set of all -PMDs, significantly
improving the cover size of Daskalakis and Papadimitriou, and obtaining the
same qualitative dependence of the cover size on and as the
cover of Daskalakis and Papadimitriou. We further exploit this structure
to show that -PMDs can be learned to within in total
variation distance from samples, which is
near-optimal in terms of dependence on and independent of . In
particular, our result generalizes the single-dimensional result of Daskalakis,
Diakonikolas, and Servedio for Poisson Binomials to arbitrary dimension.Comment: 49 pages, extended abstract appeared in FOCS 201
Should quarterly government finance statistics be used for fiscal surveillane in Europe?
We use a newly available dataset of euro area quarterly national accounts fiscal data and construct multi-variate, state-space mixed-frequencies models for the government deficit, revenue and expenditure in order to assess its information content and its potential use for fiscal forecasting and monitoring purposes. The models are estimated with annual and quarterly national accounts fiscal data, but also incorporate monthly information taken from the cash accounts of the governments. The results show the usefulness of our approach for real-time fiscal policy surveillance in Europe, given the current policy framework in which the relevant official figures are expressed in annual terms. JEL Classification: C53, E6, H6Fiscal policies, forecasting, Mixed frequency data, Unobserved Components
The Satisfiability Threshold for k-XORSAT
We consider "unconstrained" random -XORSAT, which is a uniformly random
system of linear non-homogeneous equations in over
variables, each equation containing variables, and also consider a
"constrained" model where every variable appears in at least two equations.
Dubois and Mandler proved that is a sharp threshold for satisfiability
of constrained 3-XORSAT, and analyzed the 2-core of a random 3-uniform
hypergraph to extend this result to find the threshold for unconstrained
3-XORSAT.
We show that remains a sharp threshold for satisfiability of
constrained -XORSAT for every , and we use standard results on the
2-core of a random -uniform hypergraph to extend this result to find the
threshold for unconstrained -XORSAT. For constrained -XORSAT we narrow
the phase transition window, showing that implies almost-sure
satisfiability, while implies almost-sure unsatisfiability.Comment: Version 2 adds sharper phase transition result, new citation in
literature survey, and improvements in presentation; removes Appendix
treating k=
- ā¦