Search results for "Exchangeability"
showing 5 items of 5 documents
Predictive distributions that mimic frequencies over a restricted subdomain
2020
A predictive distribution over a sequence of $$N+1$$ events is said to be “frequency mimicking” whenever the probability for the final event conditioned on the outcome of the first N events equals the relative frequency of successes among them. Exchangeable distributions that exhibit this feature universally are known to have several annoying concomitant properties. We motivate frequency mimicking assertions over a limited subdomain in practical problems of finite inference, and we identify their computable coherent implications. We provide some examples using reference distributions, and we introduce computational software to generate any complete specification desired. Theorems on reducti…
Assessing fat-tailed sequential forecast distributions for the Dow-Jones index with logarithmic scoring rules
2007
We use the logarithmic scoring rule for distributions to assess a variety of fat-tailed sequential forecasting distributions for the Dow-Jones industrial stock index from 1980 to the present. The methodology applies Bruno de Finetti''s contributions to understanding how to compare the quality of different coherent forecasting distributions for the same sequence of observations, using proper scoring rules. Four different forms of forecasting distributions are compared: a mixture Normal, a mixture of convex combinations of three Normal distributions, a mixture exponential power distribution, and a mixture of a convex combination of three exponential power distributions. The mixture linear com…
Forward and backward diffusion approximations for haploid exchangeable population models
2001
Abstract The class of haploid population models with non-overlapping generations and fixed population size N is considered such that the family sizes ν1,…,νN within a generation are exchangeable random variables. A criterion for weak convergence in the Skorohod sense is established for a properly time- and space-scaled process counting the number of descendants forward in time. The generator A of the limit process X is constructed using the joint moments of the offspring variables ν1,…,νN. In particular, the Wright–Fisher diffusion with generator Af(x)= 1 2 x(1−x)f″(x) appears in the limit as the population size N tends to infinity if and only if the condition lim N→∞ E((ν 1 −1) 3 )/(N Var …
Sequentially Forecasting Economic Indices Using Mixture Linear Combinations of EP Distributions
2021
This article displays an application of the statistical method moti- vated by Bruno de Finetti's operational subjective theory of probability. We use exchangeable forecasting distributions based on mixtures of linear com- binations of exponential power (EP) distributions to forecast the sequence of daily rates of return from the Dow-Jones index of stock prices over a 20 year period. The operational subjective statistical method for comparing distributions is quite different from that commonly used in data analysis, because it rejects the basic tenets underlying the practice of hypothesis test- ing. In its place, proper scoring rules for forecast distributions are used to assess the values o…
Reassessing Accuracy Rates of Median Decisions
2007
We show how Bruno de Finetti''s fundamental theorem of prevision has computable applications in statistical problems that involve only partial information. Specifically, we assess accuracy rates for median decision procedures used in the radiological diagnosis of asbestosis. Conditional exchangeability of individual radiologists'' diagnoses is recognized as more appropriate than independence which is commonly presumed. The FTP yields coherent bounds on probabilities of interest when available information is insufficient to determine a complete distribution. Further assertions that are natural to the problem motivate a partial ordering of conditional probabilities, extending the computation …