In this paper, we consider estimating the Cholesky decomposition (the lower triangular squared root) of the covariance matrix for a conditional independent normal model under four equivariant loss functions. Closed-form expressions of the maximum likelihood estimator and an unbiased estimator of...

In this paper, we study the problem of estimating the covariance matrix [Sigma] and the precision matrix [Omega] (the inverse of the covariance matrix) in a star-shape model with missing data. By considering a type of Cholesky decomposition of the precision matrix [Omega]=[Psi]'[Psi], where...

Identified vector autoregressive (VAR) models have become widely used on time series data in recent years, but finite sample inference for such models remains a challenge. In this study, we propose a conjugate prior for Bayesian analysis of normalized VAR models. Under the prior, the marginal...

This article considers the development of objective prior distributions for discrete parameter spaces. Formal approaches to such development—such as the <italic>reference prior</italic> approach—often result in a constant prior for a discrete parameter, which is questionable for problems that exhibit certain...