ExpandProbs: Calculate modified probabilities for more accurate confidence intervals
Description
Compute modified quantiles levels, for more accurate confidence
intervals. Using these levels gives sider intervals, with closer to
desired coverage.
Usage
ExpandProbs(probs, n)
Arguments
probs
vector of numerical values between 0 and 1.
n
number of observations.
Value
A vector like probs, but with values closer to 0 and 1.
Details
Bootstrap percentile confidence interval for a sample mean correspond roughly to
$$\bar x \pm z_\alpha \hat\sigma$$
instead of
$$\bar x \pm t_{\alpha,n-1} s$$
where
$$\hat\sigma = \sqrt{(n-1)/n s}$$
is like s but computed using a divisor of n instead of n-1.
Similarly for other statistics, the bootstrap percentile interval
is too narrow, typically by roughly the same proportion.
This function finds modified probability levels probs2, such that
$$z_{\mbox{probs2}} \sqrt{(n-1)/n} = t_{\mbox{probs}, n-1}$$
z_probs2 sqrt((n-1)/n) = t_probs,n-1
so that for symmetric data, the bootstrap percentile interval
approximately matches the usual $t$ confidence interval.
References
This discusses the expanded percentile interval:
Hesterberg, Tim (2014), What Teachers Should Know about the
Bootstrap: Resampling in the Undergraduate Statistics Curriculum,
http://arxiv.org/abs/1411.5279.