A hybrid-Hill estimator enabled by heavy-tailed block maxima

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Neves, Claudia, Xu, Chang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866910018354282496
author Neves, Claudia
Xu, Chang
author_facet Neves, Claudia
Xu, Chang
contents When analysing extreme values, two alternative statistical approaches have historically been held in contention: the block maxima method (or annual maxima method, spurred by hydrological applications) and the peaks-over-threshold. Clamoured amongst statisticians as wasteful of potentially informative data, the block maxima method gradually fell into disfavour whilst peaks-over-threshold-based methodologies climbed to the centre stage of extreme value statistics. This paper devises a hybrid method which reconciles these two hitherto disconnected approaches. Appealing in its simplicity, our main result introduces a new universality class of extreme value distributions that discards the customary requirement of a sufficiently large block size for the plausible block maxima-fit to an extreme value distribution. Natural extensions to dependent and/or non-stationary settings are mapped out. We advocate that inference should be drawn solely on larger block maxima, from which practice the mainstream peaks-over-threshold methodology coalesces: the asymptotic properties of the hybrid-Hill estimator herald more than its efficiency, but rather that a fully-fledged unified semi-parametric stream of statistics for extreme values is viable. A reduced-bias off-shoot of the hybrid-Hill estimator provably outclasses the incumbent maximum likelihood estimation that relies on a numerical fit to the entire sample of block maxima.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_19338
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A hybrid-Hill estimator enabled by heavy-tailed block maxima
Neves, Claudia
Xu, Chang
Statistics Theory
Applications
Methodology
Primary 60G30, 62G32, 62G20, secondary 60F17, 62G05, 62-07
When analysing extreme values, two alternative statistical approaches have historically been held in contention: the block maxima method (or annual maxima method, spurred by hydrological applications) and the peaks-over-threshold. Clamoured amongst statisticians as wasteful of potentially informative data, the block maxima method gradually fell into disfavour whilst peaks-over-threshold-based methodologies climbed to the centre stage of extreme value statistics. This paper devises a hybrid method which reconciles these two hitherto disconnected approaches. Appealing in its simplicity, our main result introduces a new universality class of extreme value distributions that discards the customary requirement of a sufficiently large block size for the plausible block maxima-fit to an extreme value distribution. Natural extensions to dependent and/or non-stationary settings are mapped out. We advocate that inference should be drawn solely on larger block maxima, from which practice the mainstream peaks-over-threshold methodology coalesces: the asymptotic properties of the hybrid-Hill estimator herald more than its efficiency, but rather that a fully-fledged unified semi-parametric stream of statistics for extreme values is viable. A reduced-bias off-shoot of the hybrid-Hill estimator provably outclasses the incumbent maximum likelihood estimation that relies on a numerical fit to the entire sample of block maxima.
title A hybrid-Hill estimator enabled by heavy-tailed block maxima
topic Statistics Theory
Applications
Methodology
Primary 60G30, 62G32, 62G20, secondary 60F17, 62G05, 62-07
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.19338