Optimal Boundary Kernels and Weightings for Local Polynomial Regression

Abstract: Kernel smoothers are considered near the boundary of the interval. Kernels which minimize the expected mean square error are derived. These kernels are equivalent to using a linear weighting function in the local polynomial regression. It is shown that any kernel estimator that satisfies the moment conditions up to order $m$ is equivalent to a local polynomial regression of order $m$ with some non-negative weight function if and only if the kernel has at most $m$ sign changes. A fast algorithm is proposed for computing the kernel estimate in the boundary region for an arbitrary placement of data points.