Statistics 597D (starting fall 2001, Statistics 553)
Asymptotic Tools
Fall 2000

Schedule of Topics


General Information - Schedule of Topics - Assignments - Textbook Errata

This schedule of topics I plan to cover during the semester is neither complete nor etched in stone. In fact, don't be surprised if we deviate from the schedule frequently. Although ideally I would like to keep this schedule up to date, past experience has shown that when I'm pressed for time, as always happens during the semester, updating a web site like this one is the first task I start to ignore. In any event, I hope the schedule is somewhat helpful to students interested in previewing material.

In a nutshell, I'll plan to cover chapters 1, 2, and 5, followed by topics from chapters 6, 7, 3, and 4.

I've posted the brief outlines I use at the beginning of each class here.

Week 1 Tuesday
August 22
Sections 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4
Review of idea of limit, with emphasis on the rate of convergence to a limit; asymptotic equivalence; embedding sequences and the binomial probability example; some examples of and results about infinite series; order relations and notation.
Thursday
August 24
Sections 1.4, 1.5, 1.6
Examples of different types of growth; review of definition of continuity; review of cumulative distribution function (cdf) properties and continuity points.
Week 2 Tuesday
August 29
Sections 2.1, 2.2
Convergence in probability; Chebyshev's inequality and the WLLN; consistency; estimation of a common mean and simple linear regression estimates.
Thursday
August 31
Section 2.3
Convergence in law; asymptotic distribution of a sequence of random variables.
Week 3 Tuesday
September 5
Sections 2.3, 2.6, 2.4, 2.5
Bounded in probability sequences; uniform convergence; central limit theorem (iid form); delta method and Taylor's theorem.
Thursday
September 7
Sections 2.5, 2.2
Examples of delta method; Slutsky's theorem(s); variance stabilizing transformations; stationarity and m-dependence.
Week 4 Tuesday
September 12
Section 2.7
Triangular arrays; Lyapunov and Lindeberg conditions for asymptotic normality; Poisson-binomial distribution.
Thursday
September 14
Sections 2.7, 2.8
Asymptotic normality of regression estimators; stationary sequences; asymptotic normality of stationary m-dependent sequences.
Week 5 Tuesday
September 19
Section 2.8 continued
Sampling from a finite population; hypergeometric distribution; Wilcoxon rank-sum statistic.
Thursday
September 21
Section 5.1
Definitions of multivariate cdf, convergence in probability, convergence in distribution; multivariate Slutsky's theorem.
Week 6 Tuesday
September 26
Test over Chapters 1 and 2; Sections 5.1, 5.2
The test will run from 2:25-3:25 and you may bring along a single sheet of notes (2-sided).
In Sections 5.1 and 5.2, we'll cover the multivariate version of the delta method; joint distribution of uniform order statistics; bivariate normal distribution.
Thursday
September 28
Section 5.2
More on bivariate and multivariate normal; multivariate CLT.
Week 7 Tuesday
October 3
Sections 5.2, 5.3, 5.5
Change of variables, uniform order statistics, sample correlation coefficient
Thursday
October 5
Sections 5.4, 5.5
Pearson chi-square statistic
Week 8 Tuesday
October 10
Fall break
No class.
Thursday
October 12
Sections 5.6, 5.4
2x2 Tables, joint asymptotic distribution of quantiles
Week 9 Tuesday
October 17
Sections 3.1, 3.3
Asymptotically equivalent tests, consistent tests, asymptotic power, sample size calculations
Thursday
October 19
Sections 3.3, 3.4
Asymptotic power of Pearson's chi-square test, efficacy, asymptotic relative efficiency
Week 10 Tuesday
October 24
Section 3.4
Power of the Wilcoxon signed rank and rank-sum tests, comparison of signed rank test with t test and sign test
Thursday
October 26
Section 6.1
Statistical functionals, U- and V-statistics
Week 11 Tuesday
October 31
Sections 6.1, 6.2
Asymptotic normality of U- and V-statistics, Wilcoxon signed rank statistic
Thursday
November 2
Test over Chapters 5 and 3 (with some emphasis placed on chapters 1 and 2 as well).
The test will run from 2:25-3:25 and you may bring along a 2-sided sheet of notes.
Week 12 Tuesday
November 7
Sections 6.1, 6.5
Multisample U-statistics, Wilcoxon rank-sum, bootstrapping
Thursday
November 9
Section 6.5
Bootstrapping continued
Week 13 Tuesday
November 14
Sections 7.1, 7.2
Consistency of MLE (and related complications), existence of consistent sequence of roots of likelihood equation, review of Fisher information
Thursday
November 16
Section 7.3
Asymptotic normality of consistent sequence of roots of likelihood equation under certain regularity conditions
Week 14 Tuesday
November 21
Sections 7.3, 7.4
Asymptotic efficiency, asymptotically efficient estimators via Newton's method
Thursday
November 23
Thanksgiving holiday
No class.
Week 15 Tuesday
November 28
Section 7.5
Fisher information, asymptotic normality of MLE, and efficient estimators via Newton's method for the multiparameter case
Thursday
November 30
Section 7.6
Asymptotic efficiency in the multiparameter case
Week 16 Tuesday
December 5
Section 7.7
Wald, likelihood ratio, and Rao (score) tests
Thursday
December 7
Section 7.7, recap
Week 17 Monday
December 11
through
Friday
December 15
Finals week.
The final for this class will be Wednesday, December 13 from 6:50-8:40 pm in room 111 Thomas (NOTE: DIFFERENT ROOM!).


Last updated: December 8, 2000
dhunter@stat.psu.edu