The saddlepoint approximation for averages of conditionally independent random variables

Motivated by the application of saddlepoint approximations to resampling-based statistical tests, we prove that a Lugananni-Rice style approximation for conditional tail probabilities of averages of conditionally independent random variables has vanishing relative error. We also provide a general condition on the existence and uniqueness of the solution to the corresponding saddlepoint equation. The results are valid under a broad class of distributions involving no restrictions on the smoothness of the distribution function. The derived saddlepoint approximation formula can be directly applied to resampling-based hypothesis tests, including bootstrap, sign-flipping and conditional randomization tests. Our results extend and connect several classical saddlepoint approximation results. On the way to proving our main results, we prove a new conditional Berry-Esseen inequality for the sum of conditionally independent random variables, which may be of independent interest.