Book 98

The Weighted Bootstrap

by Philippe Barbe and Patrice Bertail

Published 24 February 1995
INTRODUCTION 1) Introduction In 1979, Efron introduced the bootstrap method as a kind of universal tool to obtain approximation of the distribution of statistics. The now well known underlying idea is the following : consider a sample X of Xl ' n independent and identically distributed H.i.d.) random variables (r. v,'s) with unknown probability measure (p.m.) P . Assume we are interested in approximating the distribution of a statistical functional T(P ) the -1 nn empirical counterpart of the functional T(P) , where P n := n l:i=l aX. is 1 the empirical p.m. Since in some sense P is close to P when n is large, n * * LLd. from P and builds the empirical p.m. if one samples Xl ' ... , Xm n n -1 mn * * P T(P ) conditionally on := mn l: i =1 a * ' then the behaviour of P m n,m n n n X. 1 T(P ) should imitate that of when n and mn get large. n This idea has lead to considerable investigations to see when it is correct, and when it is not. When it is not, one looks if there is any way to adapt it.

Book 187

This book gives an account of recent developments in the field of probability and statistics for dependent data. It covers a wide range of topics from Markov chain theory and weak dependence with an emphasis on some recent developments on dynamical systems, to strong dependence in times series and random fields. There is a section on statistical estimation problems and specific applications. The book is written as a succession of papers by field specialists, alternating general surveys, mostly at a level accessible to graduate students in probability and statistics, and more general research papers mainly suitable to researchers in the field.