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Main Authors: Liu, Xu, Chan, Kin Wai
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.15596
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author Liu, Xu
Chan, Kin Wai
author_facet Liu, Xu
Chan, Kin Wai
contents Prewhitening is a common approach to deal with strong autocorrelation. In this article, we propose a new approach called tail postcoloring, motivated by it. It uses parametric models to project, or color back, the neglected tail autocovariances in nonparametric estimators onto the final estimator. This approach bridges the non-parametric variance estimator and the parametric coloring model through a scaling factor. It automatically switches between these two arms using a bandwidth parameter, without the need to transform the entire dataset into residuals, as in the standard prewhitening approach. When the coloring model is well-specified, a parametric rate can be achieved. In finite samples, it is also more robust to misspecification of the coloring model compared to the whitening model in the standard approach. Besides, it avoids severe potential variance inflation or power reduction caused by the recoloring factor in the standard approach. We show that multiple parametric models can be used to construct a multiply robust tail postcolored estimator. It also naturally works for multivariate time series. A real-data example in Markov chain Monte Carlo output analysis is provided.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_15596
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tail postcoloring in long-run variance estimation of time series
Liu, Xu
Chan, Kin Wai
Methodology
Prewhitening is a common approach to deal with strong autocorrelation. In this article, we propose a new approach called tail postcoloring, motivated by it. It uses parametric models to project, or color back, the neglected tail autocovariances in nonparametric estimators onto the final estimator. This approach bridges the non-parametric variance estimator and the parametric coloring model through a scaling factor. It automatically switches between these two arms using a bandwidth parameter, without the need to transform the entire dataset into residuals, as in the standard prewhitening approach. When the coloring model is well-specified, a parametric rate can be achieved. In finite samples, it is also more robust to misspecification of the coloring model compared to the whitening model in the standard approach. Besides, it avoids severe potential variance inflation or power reduction caused by the recoloring factor in the standard approach. We show that multiple parametric models can be used to construct a multiply robust tail postcolored estimator. It also naturally works for multivariate time series. A real-data example in Markov chain Monte Carlo output analysis is provided.
title Tail postcoloring in long-run variance estimation of time series
topic Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.15596