The Jackknife The Bootstrap And Other Resampling

The Jackknife, the Bootstrap, and Other Resampling Plans

The jackknife and the bootstrap are nonparametric methods for assessing the errors in a statistical estimation problem. They provide several advantages over the traditional parametric approach: the methods are easy to describe and they apply to arbitrarily complicated situations; distribution assumptions, such as normality, are never made. This monograph connects the jackknife, the bootstrap, and many other related ideas such as cross-validation, random subsampling, and balanced repeated replications into a unified exposition. The theoretical development is at an easy mathematical level and is supplemented by a large number of numerical examples. The methods described in this monograph form a useful set of tools for the applied statistician. They are particularly useful in problem areas where complicated data structures are common, for example, in censoring, missing data, and highly multivariate situations.

The Jackknife, the Bootstrap and Other Resampling

The Jackknife and Bootstrap

The jackknife and bootstrap are the most popular data-resampling meth ods used in statistical analysis. The resampling methods replace theoreti cal derivations required in applying traditional methods (such as substitu tion and linearization) in statistical analysis by repeatedly resampling the original data and making inferences from the resamples. Because of the availability of inexpensive and fast computing, these computer-intensive methods have caught on very rapidly in recent years and are particularly appreciated by applied statisticians. The primary aims of this book are (1) to provide a systematic introduction to the theory of the jackknife, the bootstrap, and other resampling methods developed in the last twenty years; (2) to provide a guide for applied statisticians: practitioners often use (or misuse) the resampling methods in situations where no theoretical confirmation has been made; and (3) to stimulate the use of the jackknife and bootstrap and further devel opments of the resampling methods. The theoretical properties of the jackknife and bootstrap methods are studied in this book in an asymptotic framework. Theorems are illustrated by examples. Finite sample properties of the jackknife and bootstrap are mostly investigated by examples and/or empirical simulation studies. In addition to the theory for the jackknife and bootstrap methods in problems with independent and identically distributed (Li.d.) data, we try to cover, as much as we can, the applications of the jackknife and bootstrap in various complicated non-Li.d. data problems.