The method of envelopes to concisely calculate semiparametric efficient scores under parametric restrictions.

Abstract

When addressing semiparametric problems with parametric restrictions (assumptions on the distribution), the efficient score (ES) of a parameter is often important for generating useful estimates. However, usual derivation of ES, although conceptually simple, is often lengthy and with many steps that do not help in understanding why its final form arises. This drawback often casts onto semiparametric estimation a mantle that can turn away otherwise able doctoral students or researchers. Here we show that many ESs can be obtained as a one-step derivation after we characterize those features (envelopes) of the unrestricted problem that are constrained in the restricted problem. We demonstrate our arguments in three problems with known ES but whose usual derivations are lengthy. We show that the envelope-based derivation is dramatically explanatory and compact, needing essentially two lines where the standard approach needs 10 or more pages. This suggests that the envelope method can add useful intuition and exegesis to both teaching and research of semiparametric estimation.