Moment free deviation inequalities for linear combinations of independent random variables with power-type tails

Abstract

We present order of magnitude estimates for the quantiles of non-negative linear combinations of non-negative random variables, as well as deviation inequalities for general linear combinations of independent random variables, under the assumption that all random variables satisfy the same power-type tail bound on $\mathbb{P}\{\left\vert X_i\right\vert>t\}$ of the form $t^{-q}$, $t^{-q/2}$ or $t^{-q/2}(\ln t)^{q/2}$, for $q>2$. The third type is applicable in the nonlinear setting. In the situations we consider, these results improve on classical estimates of Nagaev.