Statistical inference for discretely sampled stochastic functional differential equations with small noise

Abstract: Estimating parameters of drift and diffusion coefficients for multidimensional stochastic delay equations with small noise are considered. The delay structure is written as an integral form with respect to a delay measure. Our contrast function is based on a local-Gauss approximation to the transition probability density of the process. We show consistency and asymptotic normality of the minimum-contrast estimator when the dispersion coefficient goes to zero and the sample size goes to infinity, simultaneously.