Stein's Method for the Beta Distribution and the Pólya-Eggenberger Urn. (30th January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Goldstein, Larry; Reinert, Gesine
• Is Part Of: Journal of applied probability. Volume 50:Number 4(2013)
• Page Start: 1187
• Page End: 1205
• Publication Date: 2018-01-30
• Subjects: Stein's method, -- urn model, -- beta distribution, -- arcsine distribution; 60F05, -- 62E20, -- 60K99; 519.2
• DOI: 10.1239/jap/1389370107
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-9002

Abstract

Abstract : Using a characterizing equation for the beta distribution, Stein's method is applied to obtain bounds of the optimal order for the Wasserstein distance between the distribution of the scaled number of white balls drawn from a Pólya-Eggenberger urn and its limiting beta distribution. The bound is computed by making a direct comparison between characterizing operators of the target and the beta distribution, the former derived by extending Stein's density approach to discrete distributions. In addition, refinements are given to Döbler's (2012) result for the arcsine approximation for the fraction of time a simple random walk of even length spends positive, and so also to the distributions of its last return time to 0 and its first visit to its terminal point, by supplying explicit constants to the present Wasserstein bound and also demonstrating that its rate is of the optimal order.