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Non-asymptotic moment bounds for random variables rounded to non-uniformly spaced sets

Abstract

We study the effects of rounding on the moments of random variables. Specifically, given a random variable XX and its rounded counterpart rd(X)\operatorname{rd}(X), we study E[Xk]E[rd(X)k]|\mathbb{E}[X^k] - \mathbb{E}[\operatorname{rd}(X)^{k}]| for non-negative integer kk. We consider the case that the rounding function rd:RF\operatorname{rd} : \mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{F} corresponds either to (i) rounding to the nearest point in some discrete set F\mathbb{F} or (ii) rounding randomly to either the nearest larger or smaller point in this same set with probabilities proportional to the distances to these points. In both cases, we show, under reasonable assumptions on the density function of XX, how to compute a constant CC such that E[Xk]E[rd(X)k]<Cϵ2|\mathbb{E}[X^k] - \mathbb{E}[\operatorname{rd}(X)^{k}]| < C\epsilon^2, provided rd(x)xϵE(x)|\operatorname{rd}(x) - x| \leq \epsilon \: E(x), where E:RR0E : \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}_{\geq 0} is some fixed positive piecewise linear function. Refined bounds for the absolute moments E[Xkrd(X)k]\mathbb{E}[ |X^k-\operatorname{rd}(X)^{k}|] are also given.

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