Estimation of a discrete probability under constraint of k-monotony

Abstract

We propose two least-squares estimators of a discrete probability under the constraint of k-monotony and study their statistical properties. We give a characterization of these estimators based on the decomposition on a spline basis of k-monotone sequences. We develop an algorithm derived from the Support Reduction Algorithm and we finally present a simulation study to illustrate their properties.

53 pages, 35 figures