No need for an oracle: the nonparametric maximum likelihood decision in the compound decision problem is minimax

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Ritov, Ya'acov
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Ritov, Ya'acov
author_facet Ritov, Ya'acov
contents We discuss the asymptotics of the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator (NPMLE) in the normal mixture model. We then prove the convergence rate of the NPMLE decision in the empirical Bayes problem with normal observations. We point to (and heavily use) the connection between the NPMLE decision and Stein unbiased risk estimator (\sure). Next, we prove that the same solution is optimal in the compound decision problem where the unobserved parameters are not assumed to be random. Similar results are usually claimed using an oracle-based argument. However, we contend that the standard oracle argument is not valid. It was only partially proved that it can be fixed, and the existing proofs of these partial results are tedious. Our approach, on the other hand, is straightforward and short.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_11401
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle No need for an oracle: the nonparametric maximum likelihood decision in the compound decision problem is minimax
Ritov, Ya'acov
Statistics Theory
We discuss the asymptotics of the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator (NPMLE) in the normal mixture model. We then prove the convergence rate of the NPMLE decision in the empirical Bayes problem with normal observations. We point to (and heavily use) the connection between the NPMLE decision and Stein unbiased risk estimator (\sure). Next, we prove that the same solution is optimal in the compound decision problem where the unobserved parameters are not assumed to be random. Similar results are usually claimed using an oracle-based argument. However, we contend that the standard oracle argument is not valid. It was only partially proved that it can be fixed, and the existing proofs of these partial results are tedious. Our approach, on the other hand, is straightforward and short.
title No need for an oracle: the nonparametric maximum likelihood decision in the compound decision problem is minimax
topic Statistics Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.11401