Divergence Measures Estimation and its Asymptotic Normality Theory in the Discrete Case

Abstract

In this paper we provide the asymptotic theory of the general of φ-divergences measures, which include the most common divergence measures : R´enyi and Tsallis families and the Kullback-Leibler measure. We are interested in divergence measures in the discrete case. One sided and two-sided statistical tests are derived as well as symmetrized estimators. Almost sure rates of convergence and asymptotic normality theorem are obtained in the general case, and next particularized for the R´enyi and Tsallis families and for the Kullback-Leibler measure as well. Our theoretical results are validated by simulations.