Covariances in Pólya urn schemes

Abstract By now there is a solid theory for Polya urns. Finding the covariances is somewhat laborious. While these papers are “structural,” our purpose here is “computational.” We propose a practicable method for building the asymptotic covariance matrix in tenable balanced urn schemes, whereupon the asymptotic covariance matrix is obtained by solving a linear system of equations. We demonstrate the use of the method in growing tenable balanced irreducible schemes with a small index and in critical urns. In the critical case, the solution to the linear system of equations is explicit in terms of an eigenvector of the scheme.