Conditional Monte Carlo 2026-10-06
Replacing a simulated quantity by preserves its expectation and reduces variance by the law of total variance. This is Rao-Blackwellization. For a random sum, conditioning on the count and all but one summand replaces an event indicator by a cumulative distribution function evaluation. The resulting estimator needs that conditional expectation to be computable.
An unbiased estimator that is a function of a complete sufficient statistic is the unique uniformly minimum-variance unbiased estimator, up to almost sure equality. Rao-Blackwellization supplies variance reduction, and completeness supplies uniqueness. The theorem applies to a conditional statistical experiment as well, when unbiasedness, sufficiency and completeness are all evaluated under that conditional family.
Both alternatives can be made explicit. For a conditional bias-corrected normal mean estimate, let be the observed pooled estimate and , with . Invert its conditional mean:
This can be solved by bracketing or by Newton iteration . Since ,
The variance of a standard normal conditional on exceeding is , strictly between zero and one. Positivity follows from nondegeneracy; the upper bound follows because the conditional mean exceeds the truncation threshold . Hence , so the equation has at most one root. As , ; as , the truncated stage-1 mean approaches its threshold and , so a root exists for every finite . Equivalently, differentiating the conditional likelihood divides the ordinary likelihood by and gives the same score equation. This conditional-likelihood correction is not exactly conditionally unbiased merely because it inverts a mean.
For an illustration, take , , and . The equation is . Since and , the corrected estimate lies between zero and ; numerical solution gives , below the selected ordinary estimate.
For the uniform minimum variance conditionally unbiased estimator, put , , and . The fresh estimate is conditionally unbiased because it is independent of continuation. Let
Before selection, conditional Gaussian calculations give . Conditional on as well, this normal variable is truncated below , so
Using , Rao-Blackwellization therefore gives
Its conditional expectation is , and its conditional variance cannot exceed that of . To justify uniform minimum variance, the joint conditional density of is a base density on multiplied by . Thus is a complete sufficient statistic in the one-parameter conditional exponential family, whose natural parameter ranges over an open real interval. The Lehmann–Scheffé theorem proves the claim. The orthogonal pooled arm-average statistic is independent of the entire difference process and carries the nuisance common mean. Together with , it gives a complete sufficient statistic in the selected two-parameter normal family, with an open natural-parameter space. Thus allowing that nuisance statistic does not improve the conditional unbiased estimate of the difference. For the same illustration, , and give . It differs from the conditional-likelihood estimate because exact conditional unbiasedness is a different criterion.
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 .
A UMVCUE has minimum conditional variance among all estimators unbiased in the selected experiment for every parameter. For independent Gaussian stage estimates with information , continuation , total information and pooled estimate , Rao-Blackwellization of the fresh estimate gives , where . The conditional family has complete sufficient statistic , so the Lehmann–Scheffé theorem establishes the optimum. A conditional-likelihood bias correction does not automatically have this unbiasedness property.