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X and Y are independent N (0, 1) random variables, we want to approximate P (X/Y ≤ t), for a fixed number t.

The first part of the problem was to describe a naive Monte Carlo estimate. I described that you should take samples of X and Y independently (both of size n), take the ratio of the sample values, then find the number of times the ratio is less than t and divide this by the total sample size n.

The next part is to propose a more sophisticated Monte Carlo approach based on Rao-Blackwellization. I am very confused on how to do this, as we have never covered Rao-Blackwell in much depth. And all the examples I have found do not really relate to a problem like this.

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    $\begingroup$ Have you looked at our answers on this subject? $\endgroup$
    – whuber
    Commented Apr 29 at 17:27
  • $\begingroup$ If this is a homework of sorts, you should add the self-study tag. $\endgroup$
    – Xi'an
    Commented Apr 30 at 8:54

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To use Rao-Blackwell, it is often a good idea to start with a naive estimator, then condition on the random part which is 'tricky'. In this case, if we know that $Y = y$, then the distribution of $X/Y\,|\, Y = y$ is normal, and we can compute its conditional expectation.

The naive Monte Carlo estimator of the above quantity can be computed by drawing $X_1,\ldots, X_n, Y_1, \ldots, Y_n$ independently from the standard normal, then computing. $$ \hat{\delta} = \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^n I(X_i/Y_i\leq t). $$

To get a better Rao-Blackwellized estimator, you can condition on the value of the $Y_i$'s. To start with we note that

$$ \mathbb{E}[I(X/Y \leq t)\,|\,Y = y] = \mathbb{P}(X\leq ty)I(y > 0) + \mathbb{P}(X\geq ty)I(y \leq 0) = \Phi(ty)I(y>0) + [1-\Phi(ty)]I(y\leq 0) = \Phi(t|y|), $$ where $\Phi(\cdot)$ is the cdf. in the standard normal distribution. In the last inequality we have used the fact that $\Phi(-ty) = 1-\Phi(ty)$ by symmetry of the standard normal.

The Rao-Blackwellized estimator is then $$ \hat{\delta}_{RB} = \mathbb{E}[\hat{\delta}\,|\, Y_1,\ldots, Y_n] = \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^n\mathbb{E}[I(X_i/Y_i\leq t)\,|\, Y_i] = \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^n \Phi(t|Y_i|). $$ In particular, note from the final expression that there is actually no need to simulate $X_1, \ldots, X_n$ anymore, since we compute their conditional expectations.

We can then estimate the given probability as follows:

  1. Draw $Y_1,Y_2, \ldots, Y_n$ iid. standard normal
  2. Compute $\hat{\delta}_{RB} = \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^n \Phi(t|y_i|)$.

I advice you to try out the two approaches in repeated simulations! In particular, note that the Rao-Blackwellized estimator has much lower variance.

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    $\begingroup$ Thank you this helped me a lot. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 29 at 21:36

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