Finite Information Limit Variance-Covariance Structures: Is The Entire Dataset Needed For Analysis?

Finite Information Limit (FIL) variance-covariance structures for hierarchical data are introduced and examined: for such data, it is often possible to analyze only a sometimes very small subset, leading to considerable computation time gain, with almost no efficiency loss. A central example is compound-symmetry. A simple approach is proposed to detect this property in a given dataset.