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Biases on variances estimated on large data-sets

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  • François Gardes

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, UCO - Université Catholique de l'Ouest)

Abstract

The inverse dependency of the estimated variances over the sample size throws a fundamental question on the validity of the usual statistical methodology, since any hypothesis on the value of a coefficient can be tested negatively by increasing the size of the data-set. I suppose that large data-sets are characterized by a concentration of information on homogenous sub-populations, a spatial autocorrelation of the error terms and the covariates may bias the estimation of variances. Using the corrections of variances under spatial autocorrelation, we obtain variances comparable to an estimation on sub-samples (named efficient sub-samples) the sizes of which are sufficient to contain the information which gives rise to similar estimates to those obtained on the whole population. Moreover, the estimation on efficient data-sets does not necessitate the specification of the spatial autocorrelations which are supposed to bias the estimated variances.

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  • François Gardes, 2021. "Biases on variances estimated on large data-sets," Post-Print halshs-03325118, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-03325118
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03325118
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

    dataset; estimated variance; spatial autocorrelation; grouped observations;
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