In statistics, sometimes the covariance matrix of a multivariate random variable is not known but has to be estimated. Estimation of covariance matrices then deals with the question of how to approximate the actual covariance matrix on the basis of a sample from the multivariate distribution. Simple cases, where observations are complete, can be dealt with by using the sample covariance matrix. The sample covariance matrix (SCM) is an unbiased and efficient estimator of the covariance matrix if the space of covariance matrices is viewed as an extrinsic convex cone in Rp×p; however, measured using the intrinsic geometry of positive-definite matrices, the SCM is a biased and inefficient estimator. In addition, if the random variable has a normal distribution, the sample covariance matrix has a Wishart distribution and a slightly differently scaled version of it is the maximum likelihood estimate. Cases involving missing data, heteroscedasticity, or autocorrelated residuals require deeper considerations. Another issue is the robustness to outliers, to which sample covariance matrices are highly sensitive.
Statistical analyses of multivariate data often involve exploratory studies of the way in which the variables change in relation to one another and this may be followed up by explicit statistical models involving the covariance matrix of the variables. Thus the estimation of covariance matrices directly from observational data plays two roles:
to provide initial estimates that can be used to study the inter-relationships;
to provide sample estimates that can be used for model checking.
Estimates of covariance matrices are required at the initial stages of principal component analysis and factor analysis, and are also involved in versions of regression analysis that treat the dependent variables in a data-set, jointly with the independent variable as the outcome of a random sample.
Given a sample consisting of n independent observations x1,...
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The sample mean (sample average) or empirical mean (empirical average), and the sample covariance or empirical covariance are statistics computed from a sample of data on one or more random variables. The sample mean is the average value (or mean value) of a sample of numbers taken from a larger population of numbers, where "population" indicates not number of people but the entirety of relevant data, whether collected or not. A sample of 40 companies' sales from the Fortune 500 might be used for convenience instead of looking at the population, all 500 companies' sales.
In statistics, the Wishart distribution is a generalization to multiple dimensions of the gamma distribution. It is named in honor of John Wishart, who first formulated the distribution in 1928. Other names include Wishart ensemble (in random matrix theory, probability distributions over matrices are usually called "ensembles"), or Wishart–Laguerre ensemble (since its eigenvalue distribution involve Laguerre polynomials), or LOE, LUE, LSE (in analogy with GOE, GUE, GSE).
In statistics, efficiency is a measure of quality of an estimator, of an experimental design, or of a hypothesis testing procedure. Essentially, a more efficient estimator needs fewer input data or observations than a less efficient one to achieve the Cramér–Rao bound. An efficient estimator is characterized by having the smallest possible variance, indicating that there is a small deviance between the estimated value and the "true" value in the L2 norm sense.
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