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From Mahalanobis to Bregman via Monge and Kantorovich

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  • Marc Hallin

    (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

Abstract

In his celebrated 1936 paper on “the generalized distance in statistics,” P.C. Mahalanobis pioneered the idea that, when defined over a space equipped with some probability measure P, a meaningful distance should be P-specific, with data-driven empirical counterpart. The so-called Mahalanobis distance and the related Mahalanobis outlyingness achieve this objective in the case of a Gaussian P by mapping P to the spherical standard Gaussian, via a transformation based on second-order moments which appears to be an optimal transport in the Monge-Kantorovich sense. In a non-Gaussian context, though, one may feel that second-order moments are not informative enough, or inappropriate; moreover, they might not exist. We therefore propose a distance that fully takes the underlying P into account—not just its second-order features—by considering the potential that characterizes the optimal transport mapping P to the uniform over the unit ball, along with a symmetrized version of the corresponding Bregman divergence.

Suggested Citation

  • Marc Hallin, 2018. "From Mahalanobis to Bregman via Monge and Kantorovich," Sankhya B: The Indian Journal of Statistics, Springer;Indian Statistical Institute, vol. 80(1), pages 135-146, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sankhb:v:80:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s13571-018-0163-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s13571-018-0163-4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Alfred Galichon, 2016. "Optimal transport methods in economics," Post-Print hal-03256830, HAL.
    2. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/64itsev5509q8aa5mrbhi0g0b6 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Victor Chernozhukov & Alfred Galichon & Marc Hallin & Marc Henry, 2014. "Monge-Kantorovich Depth, Quantiles, Ranks, and Signs," Papers 1412.8434, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2015.
    4. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/64itsev5509q8aa5mrbhi0g0b6 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Alfred Galichon, 2016. "Optimal Transport Methods in Economics," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10870.
    6. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/4c5431jp6o888pdrcs0fuirl40 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Eustasio Del Barrio & Juan Cuesta Albertos & Marc Hallin & Carlos Matran, 2018. "Smooth Cyclically Monotone Interpolation and Empirical Center-Outward Distribution Functions," Working Papers ECARES 2018-15, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    8. Martin Burger, 2016. "Bregman Distances in Inverse Problems and Partial Differential Equations," Springer Optimization and Its Applications, in: Jean-Baptiste Hiriart-Urruty & Adam Korytowski & Helmut Maurer & Maciej Szymkat (ed.), Advances in Mathematical Modeling, Optimization and Optimal Control, pages 3-33, Springer.
    9. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/4c5431jp6o888pdrcs0fuirl40 is not listed on IDEAS
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