Fundamental Statistical Inference

A hands-on approach to statistical inference that addresses the latest developments in this ever-growing field This clear and accessible book for beginning graduate students offers a practical and detailed approach to the field of statistical inference, providing complete derivations of results, discussions, and MATLAB programs for computation. It emphasizes details of the relevance of the material, intuition, and discussions with a view towards very modern statistical inference. In addition to classic subjects associated with mathematical statistics, topics include an intuitive presentation of the (single and double) bootstrap for confidence interval calculations, shrinkage estimation, tail (maximal moment) estimation, and a variety of methods of point estimation besides maximum likelihood, including use of characteristic functions, and indirect inference. Practical examples of all methods are given. Estimation issues associated with the discrete mixtures of normal distribution, and their solutions, are developed in detail. Much emphasis throughout is on non-Gaussian distributions, including details on working with the stable Paretian distribution and fast calculation of the noncentral Student's t. An entire chapter is dedicated to optimization, including development of Hessian-based methods, as well as heuristic/genetic algorithms that do not require continuity, with MATLAB codes provided. The book includes both theory and nontechnical discussions, along with a substantial reference to the literature, with an emphasis on alternative, more modern approaches. The recent literature on the misuse of hypothesis testing and p-values for model selection is discussed, and emphasis is given to alternative model selection methods, though hypothesis testing of distributional assumptions is covered in detail, notably for the normal distribution. Presented in three parts—Essential Concepts in Statistics; Further Fundamental Concepts in Statistics; and Additional Topics—Fundamental Statistical Inference: A Computational Approach offers comprehensive chapters on: Introducing Point and Interval Estimation; Goodness of Fit and Hypothesis Testing; Likelihood; Numerical Optimization; Methods of Point Estimation; Q-Q Plots and Distribution Testing; Unbiased Point Estimation and Bias Reduction; Analytic Interval Estimation; Inference in a Heavy-Tailed Context; The Method of Indirect Inference; and, as an appendix, A Review of Fundamental Concepts in Probability Theory, the latter to keep the book self-contained, and giving material on some advanced subjects such as saddlepoint approximations, expected shortfall in finance, calculation with the stable Paretian distribution, and convergence theorems and proofs.

​This book is for students and researchers who have had a first year graduate level mathematical statistics course. It covers classical likelihood, Bayesian, and permutation inference; an introduction to basic asymptotic distribution theory; and modern topics like M-estimation, the jackknife, and the bootstrap. R code is woven throughout the text, and there are a large number of examples and problems. An important goal has been to make the topics accessible to a wide audience, with little overt reliance on measure theory. A typical semester course consists of Chapters 1-6 (likelihood-based estimation and testing, Bayesian inference, basic asymptotic results) plus selections from M-estimation and related testing and resampling methodology. Dennis Boos and Len Stefanski are professors in the Department of Statistics at North Carolina State. Their research has been eclectic, often with a robustness angle, although Stefanski is also known for research concentrated on measurement error, including a co-authored book on non-linear measurement error models. In recent years the authors have jointly worked on variable selection methods. ​

This is a text (divided into two volumes) for a two semester course in Mathematical Statistics at the Senior/Graduate level. The two main pedagogical aspects in these Volumes are: (i) the material is designed in lessons (each for a 50 minute class) with complementary exercises and home work. (ii) although the material is traditional, great care is exerted upon self-contained, rigorous and complete presentations. An elementary introduction to characteristic functions and probability measures and intergration, but not general measure theory in Volume I, allows a complete proof of some central limit theorems and a rigorous treatment of asymptotic of statistical inference. But students need to be familiar only with such things as Jacobians and eigenvalues of matrices. Volume II: Statistical Inference is designed for the second semester and contains a rigorous introduction to Mathematical Statistics, from random samples to asymptotic theory of statistical inference.

In this book the author presents with elegance and precision some of the basic mathematical theory required for statistical inference at a level which will make it readable by most students of statistics.

Probability and Statistical Inference: From Basic Principles to Advanced Models covers aspects of probability, distribution theory, and inference that are fundamental to a proper understanding of data analysis and statistical modelling. It presents these topics in an accessible manner without sacrificing mathematical rigour, bridging the gap between the many excellent introductory books and the more advanced, graduate-level texts. The book introduces and explores techniques that are relevant to modern practitioners, while being respectful to the history of statistical inference. It seeks to provide a thorough grounding in both the theory and application of statistics, with even the more abstract parts placed in the context of a practical setting. Features: •Complete introduction to mathematical probability, random variables, and distribution theory. •Concise but broad account of statistical modelling, covering topics such as generalised linear models, survival analysis, time series, and random processes. •Extensive discussion of the key concepts in classical statistics (point estimation, interval estimation, hypothesis testing) and the main techniques in likelihood-based inference. •Detailed introduction to Bayesian statistics and associated topics. •Practical illustration of some of the main computational methods used in modern statistical inference (simulation, boostrap, MCMC). This book is for students who have already completed a first course in probability and statistics, and now wish to deepen and broaden their understanding of the subject. It can serve as a foundation for advanced undergraduate or postgraduate courses. Our aim is to challenge and excite the more mathematically able students, while providing explanations of statistical concepts that are more detailed and approachable than those in advanced texts. This book is also useful for data scientists, researchers, and other applied practitioners who want to understand the theory behind the statistical methods used in their fields.

A concise, easily accessible introduction to descriptive and inferential techniques Statistical Inference: A Short Course offers a concise presentation of the essentials of basic statistics for readers seeking to acquire a working knowledge of statistical concepts, measures, and procedures. The author conducts tests on the assumption of randomness and normality, provides nonparametric methods when parametric approaches might not work. The book also explores how to determine a confidence interval for a population median while also providing coverage of ratio estimation, randomness, and causality. To ensure a thorough understanding of all key concepts, Statistical Inference provides numerous examples and solutions along with complete and precise answers to many fundamental questions, including: How do we determine that a given dataset is actually a random sample? With what level of precision and reliability can a population sample be estimated? How are probabilities determined and are they the same thing as odds? How can we predict the level of one variable from that of another? What is the strength of the relationship between two variables? The book is organized to present fundamental statistical concepts first, with later chapters exploring more advanced topics and additional statistical tests such as Distributional Hypotheses, Multinomial Chi-Square Statistics, and the Chi-Square Distribution. Each chapter includes appendices and exercises, allowing readers to test their comprehension of the presented material. Statistical Inference: A Short Course is an excellent book for courses on probability, mathematical statistics, and statistical inference at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. The book also serves as a valuable reference for researchers and practitioners who would like to develop further insights into essential statistical tools.

This classic textbook builds theoretical statistics from the first principles of probability theory. Starting from the basics of probability, the authors develop the theory of statistical inference using techniques, definitions, and concepts that are statistical and natural extensions, and consequences, of previous concepts. It covers all topics from a standard inference course including: distributions, random variables, data reduction, point estimation, hypothesis testing, and interval estimation. Features The classic graduate-level textbook on statistical inference Develops elements of statistical theory from first principles of probability Written in a lucid style accessible to anyone with some background in calculus Covers all key topics of a standard course in inference Hundreds of examples throughout to aid understanding Each chapter includes an extensive set of graduated exercises Statistical Inference, Second Edition is primarily aimed at graduate students of statistics, but can be used by advanced undergraduate students majoring in statistics who have a solid mathematics background. It also stresses the more practical uses of statistical theory, being more concerned with understanding basic statistical concepts and deriving reasonable statistical procedures, while less focused on formal optimality considerations. This is a reprint of the second edition originally published by Cengage Learning, Inc. in 2001.