Bootstrap smoothed (bagged) estimators have been proposed as an improvement on estimators found after preliminary data‐based model selection. Efron derived a widely applicable formula for a delta method approximation to the standard deviation of the bootstrap smoothed estimator. He also considered a confidence interval centred on the bootstrap smoothed estimator, with width proportional to the estimate of this standard deviation. Recently, Kabaila and Wijethunga assessed the performance of this confidence interval in the scenario of two nested linear regression models, the full model and the simpler model, for the case of known error variance and preliminary model selection using a hypothesis test. They found that the performance of this confidence interval was not substantially better than the usual confidence interval based on the full model, with the same minimum coverage. We extend this assessment to the case of unknown error variance by deriving a computationally convenient exact formula for the ideal (i.e., in the limit as the number of bootstrap replications diverges to infinity) delta method approximation to the standard deviation of the bootstrap smoothed estimator. Our results show that, unlike the known error variance case, there are circumstances in which this confidence interval has attractive properties.
Recently, Kabaila and Wijethunga assessed the performance of a confidence interval centred on a bootstrap smoothed estimator, with width proportional to an estimator of Efron's delta method approximation to the standard deviation of this estimator. They used a testbed situation consisting of two nested linear regression models, with error variance assumed known, and model selection using a preliminary hypothesis test. This assessment was in terms of coverage and scaled expected length, where the scaling is with respect to the expected length of the usual confidence interval with the same minimum coverage probability. They found that this confidence interval has scaled expected length that (a) has a maximum value that may be much greater than 1 and (b) is greater than a number slightly less than 1 when the simpler model is correct. We therefore ask the following question. For a confidence interval, centred on the bootstrap smoothed estimator, does there exist a formula for its data-based width such that, in this testbed situation, it has the desired minimum coverage and scaled expected length that (a) has a maximum value that is not too much larger than 1 and (b) is substantially less than 1 when the simpler model is correct? Using a recent decision-theoretic performance bound due to Kabaila and Kong, it is shown that the answer to this question is 'no' for a wide range of scenarios.KEYWORDS confidence interval; coverage probability; decision theory; bootstrap smoothed estimator; model selection; nested linear regression models; scaled expected length.
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