Related papers: Optimal Unbiased Estimation for Expected Cumulativ…
We study the existence of algorithms generating almost surely nonnegative unbiased estimators. We show that given a nonconstant real-valued function $f$ and a sequence of unbiased estimators of $\lambda\in\mathbb{R}$, there is no algorithm…
Recently attention has been drawn to practical problems with the use of unbounded Pareto distributions, for instance when there are natural upper bounds that truncate the probability tail. Aban, Meerschaert and Panorska (2006) derived the…
We present a Hamiltonian Monte Carlo algorithm to sample from multivariate Gaussian distributions in which the target space is constrained by linear and quadratic inequalities or products thereof. The Hamiltonian equations of motion can be…
In this paper we propose a Monte Carlo maximum likelihood estimation strategy for discretely observed Wright-Fisher diffusions. Our approach provides an unbiased estimator of the likelihood function and is based on exact simulation…
We present the first finite-sample analysis of policy evaluation in robust average-reward Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). Prior work in this setting have established only asymptotic convergence guarantees, leaving open the question of…
We propose a randomized a posteriori error estimator for reduced order approximations of parametrized (partial) differential equations. The error estimator has several important properties: the effectivity is close to unity with prescribed…
This document presents methods to remove the initialization or burn-in bias from Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimates, with consequences on parallel computing, convergence diagnostics and performance assessment. The document is written…
We deal with the efficient parallelization of Bayesian global optimization algorithms, and more specifically of those based on the expected improvement criterion and its variants. A closed form formula relying on multivariate Gaussian…
We consider online learning when the time horizon is unknown. We apply a minimax analysis, beginning with the fixed horizon case, and then moving on to two unknown-horizon settings, one that assumes the horizon is chosen randomly according…
We describe an embarrassingly parallel, anytime Monte Carlo method for likelihood-free models. The algorithm starts with the view that the stochasticity of the pseudo-samples generated by the simulator can be controlled externally by a…
In this paper, we propose to combine imitation and reinforcement learning via the idea of reward shaping using an oracle. We study the effectiveness of the near-optimal cost-to-go oracle on the planning horizon and demonstrate that the…
We propose a new least-squares Monte Carlo algorithm for the approximation of conditional expectations in the presence of stochastic derivative weights. The algorithm can serve as a building block for solving dynamic programming equations,…
One aspect of Poisson approximation is that the support of the random variable of interest is often finite while the support of the Poisson distribution is not. In this paper we will remedy this by examining truncated negative binomial (of…
Many exact Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms have been developed for posterior inference in Bayesian nonparametric models which involve infinite-dimensional priors. However, these methods are not generic and special methodology must be…
In this paper, we consider undiscouted infinite-horizon optimal control for deterministic systems with an uncountable state and input space. We specifically address the case when the classic value iteration does not converge. For such…
We consider a general formulation of the random horizon Principal-Agent problem with a continuous payment and a lump-sum payment at termination. In the European version of the problem, the random horizon is chosen solely by the principal…
A severe limitation of many nonparametric estimators for random coefficient models is the exponential increase of the number of parameters in the number of random coefficients included into the model. This property, known as the curse of…
We propose a stochastic approximation method for approximating the efficient frontier of chance-constrained nonlinear programs. Our approach is based on a bi-objective viewpoint of chance-constrained programs that seeks solutions on the…
Interest is in evaluating, by Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation, the expected value of a function with respect to a, possibly unnormalized, probability distribution. A general purpose variance reduction technique for the MCMC…
We present a fully nonparametric method to estimate the value function, via simulation, in the context of expected infinite-horizon discounted rewards for Markov chains. Estimating such value functions plays an important role in approximate…