English

On distributionally robust extreme value analysis

Statistics Theory 2020-06-09 v2 Methodology Statistics Theory

Abstract

We study distributional robustness in the context of Extreme Value Theory (EVT). We provide a data-driven method for estimating extreme quantiles in a manner that is robust against incorrect model assumptions underlying the application of the standard Extremal Types Theorem. Typical studies in distributional robustness involve computing worst case estimates over a model uncertainty region expressed in terms of the Kullback-Leibler discrepancy. We go beyond standard distributional robustness in that we investigate different forms of discrepancies, and prove rigorous results which are helpful for understanding the role of a putative model uncertainty region in the context of extreme quantile estimation. Finally, we illustrate our data-driven method in various settings, including examples showing how standard EVT can significantly underestimate quantiles of interest.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1601.06858,
  title  = {On distributionally robust extreme value analysis},
  author = {Jose Blanchet and Fei He and Karthyek R. A. Murthy},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1601.06858},
  year   = {2020}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T12:36:34.386Z