Testing Many Constraints in Possibly Irregular Models Using Incomplete U-Statistics

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Sturma, Nils, Drton, Mathias, Leung, Dennis
Format: Preprint
Published: 2022
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_version_ 1866909107913490432
author Sturma, Nils
Drton, Mathias
Leung, Dennis
author_facet Sturma, Nils
Drton, Mathias
Leung, Dennis
contents We consider the problem of testing a null hypothesis defined by equality and inequality constraints on a statistical parameter. Testing such hypotheses can be challenging because the number of relevant constraints may be on the same order or even larger than the number of observed samples. Moreover, standard distributional approximations may be invalid due to irregularities in the null hypothesis. We propose a general testing methodology that aims to circumvent these difficulties. The constraints are estimated by incomplete U-statistics, and we derive critical values by Gaussian multiplier bootstrap. We show that the bootstrap approximation of incomplete U-statistics is valid for kernels that we call mixed degenerate when the number of combinations used to compute the incomplete U-statistic is of the same order as the sample size. It follows that our test controls type I error even in irregular settings. Furthermore, the bootstrap approximation covers high-dimensional settings making our testing strategy applicable for problems with many constraints. The methodology is applicable, in particular, when the constraints to be tested are polynomials in U-estimable parameters. As an application, we consider goodness-of-fit tests of latent tree models for multivariate data.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2208_11756
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Testing Many Constraints in Possibly Irregular Models Using Incomplete U-Statistics
Sturma, Nils
Drton, Mathias
Leung, Dennis
Methodology
Statistics Theory
62F03, 62R01, 62E17
We consider the problem of testing a null hypothesis defined by equality and inequality constraints on a statistical parameter. Testing such hypotheses can be challenging because the number of relevant constraints may be on the same order or even larger than the number of observed samples. Moreover, standard distributional approximations may be invalid due to irregularities in the null hypothesis. We propose a general testing methodology that aims to circumvent these difficulties. The constraints are estimated by incomplete U-statistics, and we derive critical values by Gaussian multiplier bootstrap. We show that the bootstrap approximation of incomplete U-statistics is valid for kernels that we call mixed degenerate when the number of combinations used to compute the incomplete U-statistic is of the same order as the sample size. It follows that our test controls type I error even in irregular settings. Furthermore, the bootstrap approximation covers high-dimensional settings making our testing strategy applicable for problems with many constraints. The methodology is applicable, in particular, when the constraints to be tested are polynomials in U-estimable parameters. As an application, we consider goodness-of-fit tests of latent tree models for multivariate data.
title Testing Many Constraints in Possibly Irregular Models Using Incomplete U-Statistics
topic Methodology
Statistics Theory
62F03, 62R01, 62E17
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.11756