Hoeffding Decompositions and Two-Colour Urn Sequences

Let X = (X1, X2, ...) be a non-deterministic infinite exchangeable sequence with values in {0, 1}. We show that X is Hoeffding-decomposable if, and only if, X is either an i.i.d. sequence or a Pólya sequence. This completes the results established in Peccati [2004]. The proof uses several combinatorial implications of the correspondence between Hoeffding decomposability and weak independence. Our results must be compared with previous characterizations of i.i.d. and Pólya sequences given by Hill et al. [1987] and Diaconis and Yilvisaker [1979] .