Small time Edgeworth-type expansions for weakly convergent nonhomogeneous Markov chains

We consider triangular arrays of Markov chains that converge weakly to a diffusion process. Second order Edgeworth type expansions for transition densities are proved. The paper differs from recent results in two respects. We allow nonhomogeneous diffusion limits and we treat transition densities with time lag converging to zero. Small time asymptotics are motivated by statistical applications and by resulting approximations for the joint density of diffusion values at an increasing grid of points.Comment: 58 page

Additive isotone regression

This paper is about optimal estimation of the additive components of a nonparametric, additive isotone regression model. It is shown that asymptotically up to first order, each additive component can be estimated as well as it could be by a least squares estimator if the other components were known. The algorithm for the calculation of the estimator uses backfitting. Convergence of the algorithm is shown. Finite sample properties are also compared through simulation experiments.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/074921707000000355 in the IMS Lecture Notes Monograph Series (http://www.imstat.org/publications/lecnotes.htm) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Empirical risk minimization in inverse problems

We study estimation of a multivariate function $f:\mathbf{R}^d\to\mathbf{R}$ when the observations are available from the function $Af$, where $A$ is a known linear operator. Both the Gaussian white noise model and density estimation are studied. We define an $L_2$-empirical risk functional which is used to define a $\delta$-net minimizer and a dense empirical risk minimizer. Upper bounds for the mean integrated squared error of the estimators are given. The upper bounds show how the difficulty of the estimation depends on the operator through the norm of the adjoint of the inverse of the operator and on the underlying function class through the entropy of the class. Corresponding lower bounds are also derived. As examples, we consider convolution operators and the Radon transform. In these examples, the estimators achieve the optimal rates of convergence. Furthermore, a new type of oracle inequality is given for inverse problems in additive models.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-AOS726 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

A New Look at the Easy-Hard-Easy Pattern of Combinatorial Search Difficulty

The easy-hard-easy pattern in the difficulty of combinatorial search problems as constraints are added has been explained as due to a competition between the decrease in number of solutions and increased pruning. We test the generality of this explanation by examining one of its predictions: if the number of solutions is held fixed by the choice of problems, then increased pruning should lead to a monotonic decrease in search cost. Instead, we find the easy-hard-easy pattern in median search cost even when the number of solutions is held constant, for some search methods. This generalizes previous observations of this pattern and shows that the existing theory does not explain the full range of the peak in search cost. In these cases the pattern appears to be due to changes in the size of the minimal unsolvable subproblems, rather than changing numbers of solutions.Comment: See http://www.jair.org/ for any accompanying file

Nonparametric Estimation of an Additive Model With a Link Function

This paper describes an estimator of the additive components of a nonparametric additive model with a known link function. When the additive components are twice continuously differentiable, the estimator is asymptotically normally distributed with a rate of convergence in probability of n^{-2/5}. This is true regardless of the (finite) dimension of the explanatory variable. Thus, in contrast to the existing asymptotically normal estimator, the new estimator has no curse of dimensionality. Moreover, the estimator has an oracle property. The asymptotic distribution of each additive component is the same as it would be if the other components were known with certainty.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053604000000814 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Bandwidth selection for smooth backfitting in additive models

The smooth backfitting introduced by Mammen, Linton and Nielsen [Ann. Statist. 27 (1999) 1443-1490] is a promising technique to fit additive regression models and is known to achieve the oracle efficiency bound. In this paper, we propose and discuss three fully automated bandwidth selection methods for smooth backfitting in additive models. The first one is a penalized least squares approach which is based on higher-order stochastic expansions for the residual sums of squares of the smooth backfitting estimates. The other two are plug-in bandwidth selectors which rely on approximations of the average squared errors and whose utility is restricted to local linear fitting. The large sample properties of these bandwidth selection methods are given. Their finite sample properties are also compared through simulation experiments.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053605000000101 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

A simple smooth backfitting method for additive models

In this paper a new smooth backfitting estimate is proposed for additive regression models. The estimate has the simple structure of Nadaraya--Watson smooth backfitting but at the same time achieves the oracle property of local linear smooth backfitting. Each component is estimated with the same asymptotic accuracy as if the other components were known.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053606000000696 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org