Weak Convergence and Empirical Processes

with A. W. van der Vaart; March 1996

Review 1: International Statistical Institute Short Book Reviews 16 (1996), 50. M. Csorgo, reviewer.


Based on the ideas of J. Hoffman(n) - Jorgensen and R. M. Dudley, Part 1 of the book, Stochastic Convergence, gives an exposition of a general theory of weak convergence, which accomodates random elements that are not necessarily Borel measurable. Such a theory has evolved mainly in developing the asymptotic theory of empirical processes indexed by classes of sets and functions that, in turn, is studied in Part 2 of the book, Empirical Processes. The aim of Part 2 is to make this theory more accessible to statisticians as well as to probabilists interested in statistical applications. Part 3, Statistical Applications, is devoted to illustrate the usefulness of these theoretical developments for statistics by a wide variety of applications that range from rates of convergence in semiparametric estimation, to the function delta-method, bootstrap permutation empirical processes and the convolution theorem. The appendix covers a number of auxiliary subjects that are used to develop some of the material in the three main Parts. The material presented in these three parts is meant to be self-contained to a reasonable extent.