Scores for Multivariate Distributions and Level Sets

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Meng, Xiaochun, Taylor, James W., Taieb, Souhaib Ben, Li, Siran
Format: Preprint
Published: 2020
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author Meng, Xiaochun
Taylor, James W.
Taieb, Souhaib Ben
Li, Siran
author_facet Meng, Xiaochun
Taylor, James W.
Taieb, Souhaib Ben
Li, Siran
contents Forecasts of multivariate probability distributions are required for a variety of applications. Scoring rules enable the evaluation of forecast accuracy, and comparison between forecasting methods. We propose a theoretical framework for scoring rules for multivariate distributions, which encompasses the existing quadratic score and multivariate continuous ranked probability score. We demonstrate how this framework can be used to generate new scoring rules. In some multivariate contexts, it is a forecast of a level set that is needed, such as a density level set for anomaly detection or the level set of the cumulative distribution as a measure of risk. This motivates consideration of scoring functions for such level sets. For univariate distributions, it is well-established that the continuous ranked probability score can be expressed as the integral over a quantile score. We show that, in a similar way, scoring rules for multivariate distributions can be decomposed to obtain scoring functions for level sets. Using this, we present scoring functions for different types of level set, including density level sets and level sets for cumulative distributions. To compute the scores, we propose a simple numerical algorithm. We perform a simulation study to support our proposals, and we use real data to illustrate usefulness for forecast combining and CoVaR estimation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2002_09578
institution arXiv
publishDate 2020
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Scores for Multivariate Distributions and Level Sets
Meng, Xiaochun
Taylor, James W.
Taieb, Souhaib Ben
Li, Siran
Statistics Theory
Statistical Finance
Methodology
Forecasts of multivariate probability distributions are required for a variety of applications. Scoring rules enable the evaluation of forecast accuracy, and comparison between forecasting methods. We propose a theoretical framework for scoring rules for multivariate distributions, which encompasses the existing quadratic score and multivariate continuous ranked probability score. We demonstrate how this framework can be used to generate new scoring rules. In some multivariate contexts, it is a forecast of a level set that is needed, such as a density level set for anomaly detection or the level set of the cumulative distribution as a measure of risk. This motivates consideration of scoring functions for such level sets. For univariate distributions, it is well-established that the continuous ranked probability score can be expressed as the integral over a quantile score. We show that, in a similar way, scoring rules for multivariate distributions can be decomposed to obtain scoring functions for level sets. Using this, we present scoring functions for different types of level set, including density level sets and level sets for cumulative distributions. To compute the scores, we propose a simple numerical algorithm. We perform a simulation study to support our proposals, and we use real data to illustrate usefulness for forecast combining and CoVaR estimation.
title Scores for Multivariate Distributions and Level Sets
topic Statistics Theory
Statistical Finance
Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.09578