Bandwidth Selection in Kernel Density Estimation

Abstract

In kernel density estimation, the most crucial step is to select a proper bandwidth (smoothing parameter). There are two conceptually different approaches to this problem: a subjective and an objective approach. In this report, we only consider the objective approach, which is based upon minimizing an error, defined by an error criterion. The most common objective bandwidth selection method is to minimize some squared error expression, but this method is not without its critics. This approach is said to not perform satisfactory in the tail(s) of the density, and to put too much weight on observations close to the mode(s) of the density. An approach which minimizes an absolute error expression, is thought to be without these drawbacks. We will provide a new explicit formula for the mean integrated absolute error. The optimal mean integrated absolute error bandwidth will be compared to the optimal mean integrated squared error bandwidth. We will argue that these two bandwidths are essentially equal. In addition, we study data-driven bandwidth selection, and we will propose a new data-driven bandwidth selector. Our new bandwidth selector has promising behavior with respect to the visual error criterion, especially in the cases of limited sample sizes.