IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/scjsta/v48y2021i3p817-844.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Maximum likelihood estimation for totally positive log‐concave densities

Author

Listed:
  • Elina Robeva
  • Bernd Sturmfels
  • Ngoc Tran
  • Caroline Uhler

Abstract

We study nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation for two classes of multivariate distributions that imply strong forms of positive dependence; namely log‐supermodular (MTP2) distributions and log‐L♮‐concave (LLC) distributions. In both cases we also assume log‐concavity in order to ensure boundedness of the likelihood function. Given n independent and identically distributed random vectors from one of our distributions, the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) exists a.s. and is unique a.e. with probability one when n≥3. This holds independently of the ambient dimension d. We conjecture that the MLE is always the exponential of a tent function. We prove this result for samples in {0,1}d or in ℝ2 under MTP2, and for samples in ℚd under LLC. Finally, we provide a conditional gradient algorithm for computing the maximum likelihood estimate.

Suggested Citation

  • Elina Robeva & Bernd Sturmfels & Ngoc Tran & Caroline Uhler, 2021. "Maximum likelihood estimation for totally positive log‐concave densities," Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, Danish Society for Theoretical Statistics;Finnish Statistical Society;Norwegian Statistical Association;Swedish Statistical Association, vol. 48(3), pages 817-844, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:scjsta:v:48:y:2021:i:3:p:817-844
    DOI: 10.1111/sjos.12462
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/sjos.12462
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/sjos.12462?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Groeneboom,Piet & Jongbloed,Geurt, 2014. "Nonparametric Estimation under Shape Constraints," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521864015.
    2. Cule, Madeleine & Gramacy, Robert B. & Samworth, Richard, 2009. "LogConcDEAD: An R Package for Maximum Likelihood Estimation of a Multivariate Log-Concave Density," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 29(i02).
    3. Danilov, Vladimir & Koshevoy, Gleb & Murota, Kazuo, 2001. "Discrete convexity and equilibria in economies with indivisible goods and money," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 251-273, May.
    4. Karlin, Samuel & Rinott, Yosef, 1980. "Classes of orderings of measures and related correlation inequalities II. Multivariate reverse rule distributions," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 499-516, December.
    5. Walther G., 2002. "Detecting the Presence of Mixing with Multiscale Maximum Likelihood," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 97, pages 508-513, June.
    6. Ligtvoet, R., 2015. "A test for using the sum score to obtain a stochastic ordering of subjects," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 136-139.
    7. Colangelo, Antonio & Scarsini, Marco & Shaked, Moshe, 2005. "Some notions of multivariate positive dependence," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 13-26, August.
    8. Karlin, Samuel & Rinott, Yosef, 1980. "Classes of orderings of measures and related correlation inequalities. I. Multivariate totally positive distributions," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 467-498, December.
    9. Satoru Fujishige & Zaifu Yang, 2003. "A Note on Kelso and Crawford's Gross Substitutes Condition," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(3), pages 463-469, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ori Davidov & Amir Herman, 2011. "Multivariate Stochastic Orders Induced by Case-Control Sampling," Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 139-154, March.
    2. Colangelo, Antonio & Scarsini, Marco & Shaked, Moshe, 2006. "Some positive dependence stochastic orders," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 46-78, January.
    3. Jorge Navarro & Maria Longobardi & Franco Pellerey, 2017. "Comparison results for inactivity times of k-out-of-n and general coherent systems with dependent components," TEST: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 26(4), pages 822-846, December.
    4. Nowak, Piotr Bolesław, 2016. "The MLE of the mean of the exponential distribution based on grouped data is stochastically increasing," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 49-54.
    5. Colangelo Antonio, 2005. "Multivariate hazard orderings of discrete random vectors," Economics and Quantitative Methods qf05010, Department of Economics, University of Insubria.
    6. Chi, Chang Koo & Murto, Pauli & Valimaki, Juuso, 2017. "All-Pay Auctions with Affiliated Values," MPRA Paper 80799, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Vikram Krishnamurthy & Udit Pareek, 2015. "Myopic Bounds for Optimal Policy of POMDPs: An Extension of Lovejoy’s Structural Results," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 63(2), pages 428-434, April.
    8. Badía, F.G. & Sangüesa, C. & Cha, J.H., 2014. "Stochastic comparison of multivariate conditionally dependent mixtures," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 82-94.
    9. Ozan Candogan & Markos Epitropou & Rakesh V. Vohra, 2021. "Competitive Equilibrium and Trading Networks: A Network Flow Approach," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 69(1), pages 114-147, January.
    10. Kazuo Murota, 2016. "Discrete convex analysis: A tool for economics and game theory," The Journal of Mechanism and Institution Design, Society for the Promotion of Mechanism and Institution Design, University of York, vol. 1(1), pages 151-273, December.
    11. Prokopovych, Pavlo & Yannelis, Nicholas C., 2019. "On monotone approximate and exact equilibria of an asymmetric first-price auction with affiliated private information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    12. Patricio S. Dalton & Sayantan Ghosal & Anandi Mani, 2016. "Poverty and Aspirations Failure," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(590), pages 165-188, February.
    13. Bhattacharya, Bhaskar, 2012. "Covariance selection and multivariate dependence," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 212-228.
    14. Castaño-Martínez, A. & Pigueiras, G. & Sordo, M.A., 2019. "On a family of risk measures based on largest claims," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 92-97.
    15. Tsukuma, Hisayuki & Kubokawa, Tatsuya, 2008. "Stein's phenomenon in estimation of means restricted to a polyhedral convex cone," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 141-164, January.
    16. H. Finner & M. Roters & K. Strassburger, 2017. "On the Simes test under dependence," Statistical Papers, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 775-789, September.
    17. Müller, Alfred & Scarsini, Marco, 2005. "Archimedean copulæ and positive dependence," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 434-445, April.
    18. Barmalzan, Ghobad & Akrami, Abbas & Balakrishnan, Narayanaswamy, 2020. "Stochastic comparisons of the smallest and largest claim amounts with location-scale claim severities," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 341-352.
    19. Lu, I-Li & Richards, Donald, 1996. "Total positivity properties of the bivariate diagonal natural exponential families," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 119-124, February.
    20. Junbo Son & Yeongin Kim & Shiyu Zhou, 2022. "Alerting patients via health information system considering trust-dependent patient adherence," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 245-269, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:scjsta:v:48:y:2021:i:3:p:817-844. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0303-6898 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.