The printed identity needs an expectation on its right-hand side. For fixed , condition on and use independence of :
The expression inside this expectation is generally random and cannot equal the unconditional probability by itself.
For each independent Monte Carlo method replicate, draw from its given distribution. If , draw independent -variables, form and set . For the empty sum is . If may equal zero, use when , since . The law of total expectation gives
Since , the estimator has statistical consistency by the strong law of large numbers. It is the conditional Monte Carlo estimator obtained by Rao-Blackwellization of the direct indicator , and the law of total variance gives .
This version assumes that the cumulative distribution function can be evaluated. An easy sampler alone does not automatically supply an easy cumulative distribution function evaluation. If only sampling is available, use the direct indicator estimator, or replace each conditional cumulative distribution function by the average of several independent indicators ; the nested version remains an unbiased estimator. With such inner draws its variance per outer replicate is .
Rao-Blackwellization Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
Replace an estimator by its conditional expectation given selected information. The mean is unchanged and the variance cannot increase, by the law of total variance. In simulation this produces conditional Monte Carlo estimators. Sufficiency is needed for the classical inferential strengthening, but not for the elementary variance reduction identity.