arXiv subjects

Víctor Peña

Publications and source records attributed to Víctor Peña.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Differentially Private Methods for Compositional Data

Confidential data, such as electronic health records, activity data from wearable devices, and geolocation data, are becoming increasingly prevalent. Differential privacy provides a framework to conduct statistical analyses while mitigating the risk of leaking private information. Compositional data, which consist of vectors with positive components that add up to a constant, have received little attention in the differential privacy literature. This article proposes differentially private approaches for analyzing compositional data using the Dirichlet distribution. We explore several methods, including Bayesian and bootstrap procedures. For the Bayesian methods, we consider posterior inference techniques based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo, Approximate Bayesian Computation, and asymptotic approximations. We conduct an extensive simulation study to compare these approaches and make evidence-based recommendations. Finally, we apply the methodology to a data set from the American Time Use Survey.

stat.ME↗

arXiv2023

Mixture representations and Bayesian nonparametric inference for likelihood ratio ordered distributions

In this article, we introduce mixture representations for likelihood ratio ordered distributions. Essentially, the ratio of two probability densities, or mass functions, is monotone if and only if one can be expressed as a mixture of one-sided truncations of the other. To illustrate the practical value of the mixture representations, we address the problem of density estimation for likelihood ratio ordered distributions. In particular, we propose a nonparametric Bayesian solution which takes advantage of the mixture representations. The prior distribution is constructed from Dirichlet process mixtures and has large support on the space of pairs of densities satisfying the monotone ratio constraint. Posterior consistency holds under reasonable conditions on the prior specification and the true unknown densities. To our knowledge, this is the first posterior consistency result in the literature on order constrained inference. With a simple modification to the prior distribution, we can test the equality of two distributions against the alternative of likelihood ratio ordering. We develop a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm for posterior inference and demonstrate the method in a biomedical application.

stat.ME↗

arXiv2023

Differentially private methods for managing model uncertainty in linear regression models

In this work, we propose differentially private methods for hypothesis testing, model averaging, and model selection for normal linear models. We consider Bayesian methods based on mixtures of $g$-priors and non-Bayesian methods based on likelihood-ratio statistics and information criteria. The procedures are asymptotically consistent and straightforward to implement with existing software. We focus on practical issues such as adjusting critical values so that hypothesis tests have adequate type I error rates and quantifying the uncertainty introduced by the privacy-ensuring mechanisms.

stat.ME↗

arXiv2023

Differentially Private Hypothesis Testing with the Subsampled and Aggregated Randomized Response Mechanism

Randomized response is one of the oldest and most well-known methods for analyzing confidential data. However, its utility for differentially private hypothesis testing is limited because it cannot achieve high privacy levels and low type I error rates simultaneously. In this article, we show how to overcome this issue with the subsample and aggregate technique. The result is a general-purpose method that can be used for both frequentist and Bayesian testing. {{We illustrate the performance of our proposal in three scenarios: goodness-of-fit testing for linear regression models, nonparametric testing of a location parameter with the Wilcoxon test, and the nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test.

stat.ME↗

arXiv2021

On the relationship between beta-Bartlett and Uhlig extended processes

Stochastic volatility processes are used in multivariate time-series analysis to track time-varying patterns in covariance matrices. Uhlig extended and beta-Bartlett processes are especially convenient for analyzing high-dimensional time-series because they are conjugate with Wishart likelihoods. In this article, we show that Uhlig extended and beta-Bartlett are closely related, but not equivalent: their hyperparameters can be matched so that they have the same forward-filtered posteriors and one-step ahead forecasts, but different joint (smoothed) posterior distributions. Under this circumstance, Bayes factors can't discriminate the models and alternative approaches to model comparison are needed. We illustrate these issues in a retrospective analysis of volatilities of returns of foreign exchange rates. Additionally, we provide a backward sampling algorithm for the beta-Bartlett process, for which retrospective analysis had not been developed.

math.ST↗

arXiv2019

Restricted type II maximum likelihood priors on regression coefficients

In Bayesian hypothesis testing and model selection, prior distributions must be chosen carefully. For example, setting arbitrarily large prior scales for location parameters, which is common practice in estimation problems, can lead to undesirable behavior in testing (Lindley's paradox). We study the properties of some restricted type II maximum likelihood (type II ML) priors on regression coefficients. In type II ML, hyperparameters are "estimated" by maximizing the marginal likelihood of a model. In this article, we define priors by estimating their variances or covariance matrices, adding restrictions which ensure that the resulting priors are at least as vague as conventional proper priors for model uncertainty. We find that these type II ML priors typically yield results that are close to answers obtained with the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC).

math.ST↗

arXiv2019

Bayesian Bootstraps for Massive Data

In this article, we present data-subsetting algorithms that allow for the approximate and scalable implementation of the Bayesian bootstrap. They are analogous to two existing algorithms in the frequentist literature: the bag of little bootstraps (Kleiner et al., 2014) and the subsampled double bootstrap (SDB; Sengupta et al., 2016). Our algorithms have appealing theoretical and computational properties that are comparable to those of their frequentist counterparts. Additionally, we provide a strategy for performing lossless inference for a class of functionals of the Bayesian bootstrap, and briefly introduce extensions to the Dirichlet Process.

stat.CO↗

arXiv2017

A note on recent criticisms to Birnbaum's theorem

In this note, we provide critical commentary on two articles that cast doubt on the validity and implications of Birnbaum's theorem: Evans (2013) and Mayo (2014). In our view, the proof is correct and the consequences of the theorem are alive and well.

math.ST↗

arXiv2017

On the Ubiquity of Information Inconsistency for Conjugate Priors

Informally, "Information Inconsistency" is the property that has been observed in many Bayesian hypothesis testing and model selection procedures whereby the Bayesian conclusion does not become definitive when the data seems to become definitive. An example is that, when performing a t-test using standard conjugate priors, the Bayes factor of the alternative hypothesis to the null hypothesis remains bounded as the t statistic grows to infinity. This paper shows that information inconsistency is ubiquitous in Bayesian hypothesis testing under conjugate priors. Yet the title does not fully describe the paper, since we also show that theoretically recommended priors, including scale mixtures of conjugate priors and adaptive priors, are information consistent. Hence the paper is simply a forceful warning that use of conjugate priors in testing and model selection is highly problematical, and should be replaced by the information consistent alternatives.

math.ST↗

arXiv2016

Bayesian Optimization with Shape Constraints

In typical applications of Bayesian optimization, minimal assumptions are made about the objective function being optimized. This is true even when researchers have prior information about the shape of the function with respect to one or more argument. We make the case that shape constraints are often appropriate in at least two important application areas of Bayesian optimization: (1) hyperparameter tuning of machine learning algorithms and (2) decision analysis with utility functions. We describe a methodology for incorporating a variety of shape constraints within the usual Bayesian optimization framework and present positive results from simple applications which suggest that Bayesian optimization with shape constraints is a promising topic for further research.

stat.ML↗