Asymptotic Bayes Optimality Under Sparsity of the Gavrilov-Benjamini-Sarkar Step-Down Testing Procedure

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the asymptotic Bayes optimality under sparsity (ABOS) of the Gavrilov-Benjamini-Sarkar (GBS) step-down multiple testing procedure of Gavrilov et al. (2009) in the sparse Gaussian sequence model. While the asymptotic optimality properties of the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure have been extensively studied, corresponding results for the GBS procedure remain unavailable despite its favorable finite-sample performance and widespread applicability. Within the spike-and-slab Bayesian formulation and the asymptotic decision-theoretic framework of Bogdan et al. (2011), we establish that the GBS procedure is ABOS over a broad class of sparse asymptotic regimes. Existing ABOS analyses of the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure rely on approximating the random rejection threshold by a suitable deterministic surrogate. In contrast, our approach analyzes the Bayes risk directly, separately controlling the false discovery and false nondiscovery components. The analysis combines two key ingredients: a new finite-sample inequality for shifted order statistics associated with the GBS critical constants and a signal-crossing argument for ordered alternative p-values that exploits the procedure's sequential step-down structure. Together, these tools yield the desired ABOS property without resorting to threshold-localization arguments. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first asymptotic decision-theoretic analysis of the GBS procedure and the first proof of its asymptotic Bayes optimality under sparsity.