Topics in adaptive inference

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract
The recent rapid expansion in data collection has presented the field of statistics with an inexhaustible array of exciting new applications and problem settings not directly covered by classical methods or theory. In more complex problems, we must choose an appropriate computational algorithm, statistical model, or scientific question that is well-tuned to the sampling distribution we are presented with. Thus the payoff from using methods that adapt to the data set at hand is high. This work details several such methods. Chapter 2, essentially a reproduction of Fithian and Hastie (2014), describes an adaptive subsampling strategy for computationally efficient inference on massive data sets. Using a modified case-control sampling algorithm, we ``compress'' a large data set into a much smaller subsample, enriching for the most informative observations. Our algorithm enables potentially much faster analysis, at a provably small cost to statistical performance. Most statistical inference procedures are formally invalid if they are preceded by ``data snooping.'' However, in most real data problems it is hard to specify a reliable model a priori. Chapter 3, essentially a reproduction of Fithian, Sun, and Taylor (2014), discusses methods for carrying out valid inference after adaptive model selection, correcting for selection by conditioning on the model selected. Chapter 4 is as-yet unpublished work and gives further examples of selective inference applied to specific problems. First, I discuss the problem of ``rank verification'' --- testing, for example, whether the candidate who receives the most votes in a random survey is actually leading in the population from which the survey was taken. Second, I discuss an exact nonparametric selective inference procedure for use when a the data fail a goodness-of-fit test for some set of parametric assumptions.

Description

Type of resource text
Form electronic; electronic resource; remote
Extent 1 online resource.
Publication date 2015
Issuance monographic
Language English

Creators/Contributors

Associated with Fithian, William
Associated with Stanford University, Department of Statistics.
Primary advisor Hastie, Trevor
Thesis advisor Hastie, Trevor
Thesis advisor Candès, Emmanuel J. (Emmanuel Jean)
Thesis advisor Taylor, Jonathan E
Thesis advisor Tibshirani, Robert
Advisor Candès, Emmanuel J. (Emmanuel Jean)
Advisor Taylor, Jonathan E
Advisor Tibshirani, Robert

Subjects

Genre Theses

Bibliographic information

Statement of responsibility William Fithian.
Note Submitted to the Department of Statistics.
Thesis Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2015.
Location electronic resource

Access conditions

Copyright
© 2015 by William Shannon Fithian
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

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