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In this paper, we study the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of a convex hazard function. We show that the MLE is consistent and converges at a local rate of $n^{2/5}$ at points $x_0$ where the true hazard function is…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2010-01-14 Hanna K. Jankowski , Jon A. Wellner

We provide an efficient unified plug-in approach for estimating symmetric properties of distributions given $n$ independent samples. Our estimator is based on profile-maximum-likelihood (PML) and is sample optimal for estimating various…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2022-10-14 Moses Charikar , Zhihao Jiang , Kirankumar Shiragur , Aaron Sidford

When faced with a small sample from a large universe of possible outcomes, scientists often turn to the venerable Good--Turing estimator. Despite its pedigree, however, this estimator comes with considerable drawbacks, such as the need to…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2025-09-10 Yanjun Han , Jonathan Niles-Weed , Yandi Shen , Yihong Wu

It is well known that, under standard regularity conditions, the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) satisfies a central limit theorem and converges in distribution to a Gaussian random variable as the sample size grows. This paper…

Information Theory · Computer Science 2026-05-26 Leighton P. Barnes , Alex Dytso

The nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator (NPMLE) in monotone binary regression models is studied when the impact of the features on the labels is weak. Here, weakness is colloquially understood as "close to flatness" of the…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2025-06-05 Dario Kieffer , Angelika Rohde

We develop a preference elicitation method for a Von Neumann-Morgenstern (VNM)-type decision-maker from pairwise comparison data in the presence of response errors. We apply the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) method to jointly elicit…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-03-30 Bo Chen , Jia Liu

We explore computational aspects of maximum likelihood estimation of the mixture proportions of a nonparametric finite mixture model -- a convex optimization problem with old roots in statistics and a key member of the modern data analysis…

Computation · Statistics 2023-12-11 Haoyue Wang , Shibal Ibrahim , Rahul Mazumder

Finite mixture models are widely used in econometric analyses to capture unobserved heterogeneity. This paper shows that maximum likelihood estimation of finite mixtures of parametric densities can suffer from substantial finite-sample bias…

Methodology · Statistics 2026-02-04 Raphaël Langevin

This paper develops several interesting, significant, and interconnected approaches to nonparametric or semi-parametric statistical inferences. The overwhelmingly favoured maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) under parametric model is…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2023-03-30 Haodi Liang , Jiahua Chen

Mixtures-of-Experts models and their maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) via the EM algorithm have been thoroughly studied in the statistics and machine learning literature. They are subject of a growing investigation in the context of…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2019-09-13 Faïcel Chamroukhi , Florian Lecocq , Hien D. Nguyen

We consider the problem of estimating the distribution function, the density and the hazard rate of the (unobservable) event time in the current status model. A well studied and natural nonparametric estimator for the distribution function…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2010-01-13 Piet Groeneboom , Geurt Jongbloed , Birgit I. Witte

We develop an empirical Bayes (EB) G-modeling framework for short-panel linear models with nonparametric prior for the random intercepts, slopes, dynamics, and non-spherical error variances. We establish identification and consistency of…

Econometrics · Economics 2026-02-13 Myunghyun Song , Sokbae Lee , Serena Ng

The two main topics of this paper are the introduction of the "optimally tuned improper maximum likelihood estimator" (OTRIMLE) for robust clustering based on the multivariate Gaussian model for clusters, and a comprehensive simulation…

Methodology · Statistics 2017-01-31 Pietro Coretto , Christian Hennig

The Normalized Maximum Likelihood (NML) codelength, or stochastic complexity, represents a principled criterion for universal coding. While recent coarea-based formulations provided a calculation method for smooth models, this framework…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-26 Trenton Lau , Gary P. T. Choi

When a population exhibits heterogeneity, we often model it via a finite mixture: decompose it into several different but homogeneous subpopulations. Contemporary practice favors learning the mixtures by maximizing the likelihood for…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2021-07-06 Qiong Zhang , Jiahua Chen

Predictive recursion is an accurate and computationally efficient algorithm for nonparametric estimation of mixing densities in mixture models. In semiparametric mixture models, however, the algorithm fails to account for any uncertainty in…

Methodology · Statistics 2015-03-19 Ryan Martin , Surya T. Tokdar

Nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation is intended to infer the unknown density distribution while making as few assumptions as possible. To alleviate the over parameterization in nonparametric data fitting, smoothing assumptions are…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2021-04-21 YunPeng Li , ZhaoHui Ye

The large-sample properties of likelihood-based statistical inference under mixture models have received much attention from statisticians. Although the consistency of the nonparametric MLE is regarded as a standard conclusion, many…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2016-07-06 Jiahua Chen

The paper offers a novel unified approach to studying the accuracy of parameter estimation by the quasi likelihood method. Important features of the approach are: (1) The underlying model {is not assumed to be parametric}. (2) No conditions…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2009-03-11 V. Spokoiny

As the maximum likelihood method is the most commonly used method for parameters estimation being unbiased, consistent, efficient, and asymptotically normal, MLE is used to fit the new distribution (MBUW). But in small to moderate sample…

Methodology · Statistics 2025-02-17 Iman Mohammed Attia