English

Rare-event Probability Estimation via Empirical Likelihood Maximization

Computation 2013-12-12 v1

Abstract

We explore past and recent developments in rare-event probability estimation with a particular focus on a novel Monte Carlo technique Empirical Likelihood Maximization (ELM). This is a versatile method that involves sampling from a sequence of densities using MCMC and maximizing an empirical likelihood. The quantity of interest, the probability of a given rare-event, is estimated by solving a convex optimization program related to likelihood maximization. Numerical experiments are performed using this new technique and benchmarks are given against existing robust algorithms and estimators.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1312.3027,
  title  = {Rare-event Probability Estimation via Empirical Likelihood Maximization},
  author = {A. Huang and Z. I. Botev},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1312.3027},
  year   = {2013}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T02:25:07.862Z