Paper 3, Section II, K

Principles of Statistics
Part II, 2013

What is meant by a convex decision problem? State and prove a theorem to the effect that, in a convex decision problem, there is no point in randomising. [You may use standard terms without defining them.]

The sample space, parameter space and action space are each the two-point set {1,2}\{1,2\}. The observable XX takes value 1 with probability 2/32 / 3 when the parameter Θ=1\Theta=1, and with probability 3/43 / 4 when Θ=2\Theta=2. The loss function L(θ,a)L(\theta, a) is 0 if a=θa=\theta, otherwise 1 . Describe all the non-randomised decision rules, compute their risk functions, and plot these as points in the unit square. Identify an inadmissible non-randomised decision rule, and a decision rule that dominates it.

Show that the minimax rule has risk function (8/17,8/17)(8 / 17,8 / 17), and is Bayes against a prior distribution that you should specify. What is its Bayes risk? Would a Bayesian with this prior distribution be bound to use the minimax rule?