## Mathematical Statistics Lesson of the Day – Basu’s Theorem

Today’s Statistics Lesson of the Day will discuss Basu’s theorem, which connects the previously discussed concepts of minimally sufficient statistics, complete statistics and ancillary statistics.  As before, I will begin with the following set-up.

Suppose that you collected data

$\mathbf{X} = X_1, X_2, ..., X_n$

in order to estimate a parameter $\theta$.  Let $f_\theta(x)$ be the probability density function (PDF) or probability mass function (PMF) for $X_1, X_2, ..., X_n$.

Let

$t = T(\mathbf{X})$

be a statistics based on $\textbf{X}$.

Basu’s theorem states that, if $T(\textbf{X})$ is a complete and minimal sufficient statistic, then $T(\textbf{X})$ is independent of every ancillary statistic.

Establishing the independence between 2 random variables can be very difficult if their joint distribution is hard to obtain.  This theorem allows the independence between minimally sufficient statistic and every ancillary statistic to be established without their joint distribution – and this is the great utility of Basu’s theorem.

However, establishing that a statistic is complete can be a difficult task.  In a later lesson, I will discuss another theorem that will make this task easier for certain cases.

## Video Tutorial – Calculating Expected Counts in Contingency Tables Using Marginal Proportions and Marginal Totals

A common task in statistics and biostatistics is performing hypothesis tests of independence between 2 categorical random variables.  The data for such tests are best organized in contingency tables, which allow expected counts to be calculated easily.  In this video tutorial in my Youtube channel, I demonstrate how to calculate expected counts using marginal proportions and marginal totals.  In a later video, I will introduce a second method for calculating expected counts using joint probabilities and marginal probabilities.

In a later tutorial, I will illustrate how to implement the chi-squared test of independence on the same data set in R and SAS – stay tuned!

You can also watch the video below the fold!

## Mathematical and Applied Statistics Lesson of the Day – Don’t Use the Terms “Independent Variable” and “Dependent Variable” in Regression

In math and science, we learn the equation of a line as

$y = mx + b$,

with $y$ being called the dependent variable and $x$ being called the independent variable.  This terminology holds true for more complicated functions with multiple variables, such as in polynomial regression.

I highly discourage the use of “independent” and “dependent” in the context of statistics and regression, because these terms have other meanings in statistics.  In probability, 2 random variables $X_1$ and $X_2$ are independent if their joint distribution is simply a product of their marginal distributions, and they are dependent if otherwise.  Thus, the usage of “independent variable” for a regression model with 2 predictors becomes problematic if the model assumes that the predictors are random variables; a random effects model is an example with such an assumption.  An obvious question for such models is whether or not the independent variables are independent, which is a rather confusing question with 2 uses of the word “independent”.  A better way to phrase that question is whether or not the predictors are independent.

Thus, in a statistical regression model, I strongly encourage the use of the terms “response variable” or “target variable” (or just “response” and “target”) for $Y$ and the terms “explanatory variables”, “predictor variables”, “predictors”, “covariates”, or “factors” for $x_1, x_2, .., x_p$.

(I have encountered some statisticians who prefer to reserve “covariate” for continuous predictors and “factor” for categorical predictors.)