Optimal Estimation for General Gaussian Processes

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Takabatake, Tetsuya, Yu, Jun, Zhang, Chen
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Takabatake, Tetsuya
Yu, Jun
Zhang, Chen
author_facet Takabatake, Tetsuya
Yu, Jun
Zhang, Chen
contents This paper proposes a novel exact maximum likelihood (ML) estimation method for general Gaussian processes, where all parameters are estimated jointly. The exact ML estimator (MLE) is consistent and asymptotically normally distributed. We prove the local asymptotic normality (LAN) property of the sequence of statistical experiments for general Gaussian processes in the sense of Le Cam, thereby enabling optimal estimation and facilitating statistical inference. The results rely solely on the asymptotic behavior of the spectral density near zero, allowing them to be widely applied. The established optimality not only addresses the gap left by Adenstedt(1974), who proposed an efficient but infeasible estimator for the long-run mean $μ$, but also enables us to evaluate the finite-sample performance of the existing method -- the commonly used plug-in MLE, in which the sample mean is substituted into the likelihood. Our simulation results show that the plug-in MLE performs nearly as well as the exact MLE, alleviating concerns that inefficient estimation of $μ$ would compromise the efficiency of the remaining parameter estimates.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_04987
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Optimal Estimation for General Gaussian Processes
Takabatake, Tetsuya
Yu, Jun
Zhang, Chen
Statistics Theory
Econometrics
This paper proposes a novel exact maximum likelihood (ML) estimation method for general Gaussian processes, where all parameters are estimated jointly. The exact ML estimator (MLE) is consistent and asymptotically normally distributed. We prove the local asymptotic normality (LAN) property of the sequence of statistical experiments for general Gaussian processes in the sense of Le Cam, thereby enabling optimal estimation and facilitating statistical inference. The results rely solely on the asymptotic behavior of the spectral density near zero, allowing them to be widely applied. The established optimality not only addresses the gap left by Adenstedt(1974), who proposed an efficient but infeasible estimator for the long-run mean $μ$, but also enables us to evaluate the finite-sample performance of the existing method -- the commonly used plug-in MLE, in which the sample mean is substituted into the likelihood. Our simulation results show that the plug-in MLE performs nearly as well as the exact MLE, alleviating concerns that inefficient estimation of $μ$ would compromise the efficiency of the remaining parameter estimates.
title Optimal Estimation for General Gaussian Processes
topic Statistics Theory
Econometrics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.04987