Sharp asymptotic and finite-sample rates of convergence of empirical measures in Wasserstein distance

The Wasserstein distance between two probability measures on a metric space is a measure of closeness with applications in statistics, probability, and machine learning. In this work, we consider the fundamental question of how quickly the empirical measure obtained from $n$ independent samples from $\mu$ approaches $\mu$ in the Wasserstein distance of any order. We prove sharp asymptotic and finite-sample results for this rate of convergence for general measures on general compact metric spaces. Our finite-sample results show the existence of multi-scale behavior, where measures can exhibit radically different rates of convergence as $n$ grows

Uncoupled isotonic regression via minimum Wasserstein deconvolution

Isotonic regression is a standard problem in shape-constrained estimation where the goal is to estimate an unknown nondecreasing regression function $f$ from independent pairs $(x_i, y_i)$ where $\mathbb{E}[y_i]=f(x_i), i=1, \ldots n$. While this problem is well understood both statistically and computationally, much less is known about its uncoupled counterpart where one is given only the unordered sets $\{x_1, \ldots, x_n\}$ and $\{y_1, \ldots, y_n\}$. In this work, we leverage tools from optimal transport theory to derive minimax rates under weak moments conditions on $y_i$ and to give an efficient algorithm achieving optimal rates. Both upper and lower bounds employ moment-matching arguments that are also pertinent to learning mixtures of distributions and deconvolution.Comment: To appear in Information and Inference: a Journal of the IM

Entropic optimal transport is maximum-likelihood deconvolution

We give a statistical interpretation of entropic optimal transport by showing that performing maximum-likelihood estimation for Gaussian deconvolution corresponds to calculating a projection with respect to the entropic optimal transport distance. This structural result gives theoretical support for the wide adoption of these tools in the machine learning community

Near-linear time approximation algorithms for optimal transport via Sinkhorn iteration

Computing optimal transport distances such as the earth mover's distance is a fundamental problem in machine learning, statistics, and computer vision. Despite the recent introduction of several algorithms with good empirical performance, it is unknown whether general optimal transport distances can be approximated in near-linear time. This paper demonstrates that this ambitious goal is in fact achieved by Cuturi's Sinkhorn Distances. This result relies on a new analysis of Sinkhorn iteration, which also directly suggests a new greedy coordinate descent algorithm, Greenkhorn, with the same theoretical guarantees. Numerical simulations illustrate that Greenkhorn significantly outperforms the classical Sinkhorn algorithm in practice

Online learning in repeated auctions

Motivated by online advertising auctions, we consider repeated Vickrey auctions where goods of unknown value are sold sequentially and bidders only learn (potentially noisy) information about a good's value once it is purchased. We adopt an online learning approach with bandit feedback to model this problem and derive bidding strategies for two models: stochastic and adversarial. In the stochastic model, the observed values of the goods are random variables centered around the true value of the good. In this case, logarithmic regret is achievable when competing against well behaved adversaries. In the adversarial model, the goods need not be identical and we simply compare our performance against that of the best fixed bid in hindsight. We show that sublinear regret is also achievable in this case and prove matching minimax lower bounds. To our knowledge, this is the first complete set of strategies for bidders participating in auctions of this type