Statistics 597A
Asymptotic Tools
Fall 2002

Tentative Schedule of Topics


Below is the schedule of topics used in the fall of 2001. We may deviate from this schedule, though it's a pretty good sketch of what we'll cover. Obviously, the dates are different this year. In a nutshell, I'll plan to cover chapters 1, 2, and 5, followed by topics from chapters 6, 7, 3, and 4 (in Lehmann's book).

Week 1 Tuesday
August 21
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 23
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 28
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 30
Section 2.3
Convergence in law; asymptotic distribution of a sequence of random variables.
Week 3 Tuesday
September 4
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 6
Sections 2.5, 2.2
Examples of delta method; Slutsky's theorem(s); variance stabilizing transformations; stationarity and m-dependence.
Week 4 Tuesday
September 11
Section 2.7
Triangular arrays; Lyapunov and Lindeberg conditions for asymptotic normality; Poisson-binomial distribution.
Thursday
September 13
Section 2.7 continued
Asymptotic normality of regression estimators; stationary sequences; asymptotic normality of stationary m-dependent sequences.
Week 5 Tuesday
September 18
Section 2.7
Thursday
September 20
Sections 2.7, 2.8
Week 6 Tuesday
September 25
Test over Chapters 1 and 2
The test will run from 11:15-12:30 and you may bring along a single sheet of notes (2-sided).
Thursday
September 27
Section 2.8
Central limit theorem for stationary m-dependent sequences, stationary autoregressive processes.
Week 7 Tuesday
October 2
Section 5.1
Multivariate extensions of univariate concepts: Limits, cdfs, convergence in probability and distribution, Slutsky's theorem, delta method; distribution of uniform sample range. Change of variables, uniform order statistics, sample correlation coefficient
Thursday
October 4
Sections 5.2, 5.4
Multivariate Taylor's theorem, multivariate normal distribution, multivariate central limit theorem
Week 8 Tuesday
October 9
Fall break
No class.
Thursday
October 11
Section 5.4
Sample correlation coefficient
Week 9 Tuesday
October 16
Sections 5.4, 5.5, 5.6
Pearson chi-square statistic, odds ratios for 2x2 tables
Thursday
October 18
Sections 3.1, 3.3
Asymptotically equivalent tests, consistent tests, asymptotic power
Week 10 Tuesday
October 23
Sections 3.3, 3.4
Asymptotic power of Pearson's chi-square test, efficacy, asymptotic relative efficiency, power of the Wilcoxon signed rank and rank-sum tests, comparison of signed rank test with t test and sign test
Thursday
October 25
Sections 3.3, 3.4
Asymptotic relative efficiency of signed rank, t-test, sign test
Week 11 Tuesday
October 30
Sections 6.1, 6.2
Statistical functionals, Asymptotic normality of U- and V-statistics, Wilcoxon signed rank statistic
Thursday
November 1
Sections 6.1, 6.5
Multisample U-statistics, Wilcoxon rank-sum, bootstrapping
Week 12 Tuesday
November 6
Test over Chapters 5 and 3 (with some emphasis placed on chapters 1 and 2 as well).
The test will run from 11:15-12:30 and you may bring along a 2-sided sheet of notes.
Thursday
November 8
Section 6.5
Bootstrapping continued
Week 13 Tuesday
November 13
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 15
Section 7.3
Asymptotic normality of consistent sequence of roots of likelihood equation under certain regularity conditions
Week 14 Tuesday
November 20
Sections 7.3, 7.4
Asymptotic efficiency, asymptotically efficient estimators via Newton's method
Thursday
November 22
Thanksgiving holiday
No class.
Week 15 Tuesday
November 27
Section 7.5
Fisher information, asymptotic normality of MLE, and efficient estimators via Newton's method for the multiparameter case
Thursday
November 29
Section 7.6
Asymptotic efficiency in the multiparameter case
Week 16 Tuesday
December 4
Section 7.7
Wald, likelihood ratio, and Rao (score) tests
Thursday
December 6
Section 7.7, recap
Week 17 Monday
December 10
through
Friday
December 14
Finals week.
The final for this class will be Thursday, December 13 from 4:40-6:30 pm in room 305 Wagner.



dhunter@stat.psu.edu