Bayesian inference for zero-and-one-inflated geometric distribution regression model using Pólya-Gamma latent variables

Abstract

In the fields of internet financial transactions and reliability engineering, there could be more zero and one observations simultaneously. In this paper, considering that it is beyond the range where the conventional model can fit, zero-and-one-inflated geometric distribution regression model is proposed. Ingeniously introducing Pólya-Gamma latent variables in the Bayesian inference, posterior sampling with high-dimensional parameters is converted to latent variables sampling and posterior sampling with lower-dimensional parameters, respectively. Circumventing the need for Metropolis-Hastings sampling, the sample with higher sampling efficiency is obtained. A simulation study is conducted to assess the performance of the proposed estimation for various sample sizes. Finally, a doctoral dissertation data set is analyzed to illustrate the practicability of the proposed method, research shows that zero-and-one-inflated geometric distribution regression model using Pólya-Gamma latent variables can achieve better fitting results.     

Non-homogeneous Pólya-Aeppli process

Abstract

In this paper we suppose that the intensity parameter of the Pólya-Aeppli process is a function of time t and call the resulting process a non-homogeneous Pólya-Aeppli process (NHPAP). The NHPAP can be represented as a compound non-homogeneous Poisson process with geometric compounding distribution as well as a pure birth process. For this process we give two definitions and show their equivalence. Also, we derive some interesting properties of NHPAP and use simulation the illustrate the process for particular intensity functions. In addition, we introduce the standard risk model based on NHPAP, analyze the ruin probability for this model and include an example of the process under exponentially distributed claims.     

Description of a subfamily of the discrete pearson system as generalized-binomial distributions

In this paper we prove that a subfamily of distributions of the discrete Pearson, system, containing the Pólya distribution without replacement and hence the hypergeometric distribution, can be described as generalized-binomial distributions, i.e., the distribution of the number of successes which occur in independent trials. It is also shown that the probability of success will necessarily be different in each trial, with the exception of deterministic ones. As a consequence, all the properties of the generalized-binomial distribution will apply to this subfamily. Thus, applications to hypothesis testing and confidence intervals in the Pólya distribution are considered.     

Approximate Confidence Limits for a Proportion of the Pólya Distribution

The problem of constructing approximate confidence limits for a proportion parameter of the Pólya distribution is discussed. Three different methods for determining approximate one-sided and two-sided confidence limits for that parameter of the Pólya distribution have been proposed and compared. Particular cases of those confidence bounds are confidence intervals for the parameter of the binomial and the hypergeometric distributions.     

Reply

This article presents a large class of probability densities f(x, θ) for which, with positive probability, the maximum likelihood estimator based on a sample of size 2 is non unique, and the possible values of do not form an interval. Such a density f(x, θ) can even be chosen to be unimodal, and one such example is the Cauchy density with a location parameter. A discrete version of the argument gives examples in which the nonuniqueness of the maximum likelihood estimator persists for samples of arbitrary size.     

Pólya–Aeppli of Order k Risk Model

In this study, we define the Pólya–Aeppli process of order k as a compound Poisson process with truncated geometric compounding distribution with success probability 1 ? ρ > 0 and investigate some of its basic properties. Using simulation, we provide a comparison between the sample paths of the Pólya–Aeppli process of order k and the Poisson process. Also, we consider a risk model in which the claim counting process {N(t)} is a Pólya-Aeppli process of order k, and call it a Pólya—Aeppli of order k risk model. For the Pólya–Aeppli of order k risk model, we derive the ruin probability and the distribution of the deficit at the time of ruin. We discuss in detail the particular case of exponentially distributed claims and provide simulation results for more general cases.     

Estimating the Pólya process

Traditionally, a Pólya process is approached from a probability point of view. No prior inference work has been done on them. In this study, we approach the continuous-time Pólya process from an estimation point of view. We construct efficient estimators for the replacement matrix of certain classes of Pólya processes.     

Characterizing variation of nonparametric random probability measures using the Kullback–Leibler divergence

This work characterizes the dispersion of some popular random probability measures, including the bootstrap, the Bayesian bootstrap, and the Pólya tree prior. This dispersion is measured in terms of the variation of the Kullback–Leibler divergence of a random draw from the process to that of its baseline centring measure. By providing a quantitative expression of this dispersion around the baseline distribution, our work provides insight for comparing different parameterizations of the models and for the setting of prior parameters in applied Bayesian settings. This highlights some limitations of the existing canonical choice of parameter settings in the Pólya tree process.     

On a Generalization of the Classical Random Sampling Scheme and Unbiased Estimation

A generalization of the classical random sampling scheme is suggested. Based on the proposed generalization one can derive many new minimum variance unbiased estimators for probabilities, as well as for other functions of unknown parameters, for the multivariate Pólya, the multivariate negative Pólya, the multinomial, the multivariate hypergeometric, the multivariate Poisson, and the Wishart probability distributions.     

Nonparametric empirical Bayes for the Dirichlet process mixture model

The Dirichlet process prior allows flexible nonparametric mixture modeling. The number of mixture components is not specified in advance and can grow as new data arrive. However, analyses based on the Dirichlet process prior are sensitive to the choice of the parameters, including an infinite-dimensional distributional parameter G ₀. Most previous applications have either fixed G ₀ as a member of a parametric family or treated G ₀ in a Bayesian fashion, using parametric prior specifications. In contrast, we have developed an adaptive nonparametric method for constructing smooth estimates of G ₀. We combine this method with a technique for estimating α, the other Dirichlet process parameter, that is inspired by an existing characterization of its maximum-likelihood estimator. Together, these estimation procedures yield a flexible empirical Bayes treatment of Dirichlet process mixtures. Such a treatment is useful in situations where smooth point estimates of G ₀ are of intrinsic interest, or where the structure of G ₀ cannot be conveniently modeled with the usual parametric prior families. Analysis of simulated and real-world datasets illustrates the robustness of this approach.     

Letter to the editor comments on Groparu-Cojocaru and Doray (2013)

Although estimating the five parameters of an unknown Generalized Normal Laplace (GNL) density by minimizing the distance between the empirical and true characteristic functions seems appealing, the approach cannot be advocated in practice. This conclusion is based on extensive numerical simulations in which a fast minimization procedure delivers deceiving estimators with values that are quite far away from the truth. These findings can be predicted by the very large values obtained for the true asymptotic variances of the estimators of the five parameters of the true GNL density.     

The probability function of a geometric Poisson distribution

The geometric Poisson (also called Pólya–Aeppli) distribution is a particular case of the compound Poisson distribution. In this study, the explicit probability function of the geometric Poisson distribution is derived and a straightforward proof for this function is given. By means of a proposed algorithm, some numerical examples and an application on traffic accidents are also given to illustrate the usage of the probability function and proposed algorithm.     

A nonparametric Bayesian approach to copula estimation

We propose a novel Dirichlet-based Pólya tree (D-P tree) prior on the copula and based on the D-P tree prior, a nonparametric Bayesian inference procedure. Through theoretical analysis and simulations, we are able to show that the flexibility of the D-P tree prior ensures its consistency in copula estimation, thus able to detect more subtle and complex copula structures than earlier nonparametric Bayesian models, such as a Gaussian copula mixture. Furthermore, the continuity of the imposed D-P tree prior leads to a more favourable smoothing effect in copula estimation over classic frequentist methods, especially with small sets of observations. We also apply our method to the copula prediction between the S&P 500 index and the IBM stock prices during the 2007–08 financial crisis, finding that D-P tree-based methods enjoy strong robustness and flexibility over classic methods under such irregular market behaviours.     

Inference for Type II bivariate Pólya–Aeppli distribution

In this article, we discuss the estimation of model parameters of the Type II bivariate Pólya–Aeppli distribution using the method of moments and the maximum likelihood method. We also compare some interval estimation methods. We then carry out a Monte Carlo simulation study to evaluate the performance of the proposed point and interval estimation methods. Finally, we present an example to illustrate all the inferential methods developed here.     

Likelihood inference for Type I bivariate Pólya–Aeppli distribution

This article discusses likelihood inference for the Type I bivariate Pólya–Aeppli distribution. The Type I bivariate Pólya–Aeppli distribution was derived by Minkova and Balakrishnan by using compounding with geometric random variables and the trivariate reduction method. They also discussed the moment estimation of the parameters of the Type I bivariate Pólya–Aeppli distribution. Here, we carry out a simulation study to compare the performance of the developed Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) method with the moment estimation. The obtained results show that, through the MLEs require more computational time compared to the moment estimates (MoM), the MLEs perform better, in most of the settings, than the MoM. Finally, we apply the Type I bivariate Pólya–Aeppli model to a real dataset containing the frequencies of railway accidents in two subsequent six-year periods for the purpose of illustration. We also carry out some hypothesis tests using the Wald test statistic. From these results, we conclude that the two variables belong to the same univariate Pólya–Aeppli distribution, but are correlated.     

The Generalized Waring Process and Its Application

The generalized Waring distribution is a discrete distribution with a wide spectrum of applications in areas such as accident statistics, income analysis, environmental statistics, etc. It has been used as a model that better describes such practical situations as opposed to the Poisson distribution or the negative binomial distribution. Associated to both the Poisson and negative binomial distributions are the well-known Poisson and Pólya processes. In this article, the generalized Waring process is defined. Two models have been shown to lead to the generalized Waring process. One is related to a Cox process, while the other is a compound Poisson process. The defined generalized Waring process is shown to be a stationary, but non homogenous Markov process. Several properties are studied and the intensity, individual intensity, and Chapman–Kolmogorov differential equations of it are obtained. Moreover, the Poisson and Pólya processes are shown to arise as special cases of the generalized Waring process. Using this fact, some known results and some properties of them are obtained.     

Maximum likelihood estimation for a nearly random walk model

This paper proposes an effective reparameterization method for the maximum likelihood estimation of a nearly random walk ARIMA (1,1,1) model, an important case where standard method of locating the MLE is not satisfactory. This model is equivalent to the permanent and temporary components model that Fama &French (1988) and others used to capture the slow mean reversion behavior of stock prices. The reparameterization method we prppose for estimating the nearly cancelled AR and MA parameters performs satisfactorily. The exact likelihood function based on the transformed parameters is studied. We argue that the region of interest will get magnified and emphasized in the transformed space, thus making the search for MLE more thorough and effective. Substantiai simuiation evidences are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. The sample size requirement is critical and is discussed in details. For application, this method is applied to estimate a nearly random walk ARIMA (1,1,1) model for NYSE/AMEX value-weighted market return in daily and longer holding-period horizons.     

Some Estimators of Finite Population Variance of Stratified Sample Mean

We consider a continuous-time branching random walk on Z ^d , where the particles are born and die at a single lattice point (the source of branching). The underlying random walk is assumed to be symmetric. Moreover, corresponding transition rates of the random walk have heavy tails. As a result, the variance of the jumps is infinite, and a random walk may be transient even on low-dimensional lattices (d = 1, 2). Conditions of transience for a random walk on Z ^d and limit theorems for the numbers of particles both at an arbitrary point of the lattice and on the entire lattice are obtained.     

Approximate Confidence Limits for the Difference between Parameters of Two Pólya Distributions

The problem of calculating approximate confidence limits for the difference between success probability parameters of two Pólya distributions is solved for the first time. We suggest some new methods for determining these approximate confidence limits and consider their application to special cases: namely for the binomial and hypergeometric distributions. The various approximate confidence limits are evaluated and compared.     

Identifiability and Comparison of Estimation Methods on Weibull Mixture Models

In this article, the finite mixture model of Weibull distributions is studied, the identifiability of the model with m components is proven, and the parameter estimators for the case of two components resulted by several algorithms are compared. The parameter estimators are obtained with maximum likelihood performing calculations with different algorithms: expectation-maximization (EM), Fisher scoring, backfitting, optimization of k-nearest neighbor approach, and random walk algorithm using Monte Carlo simulation. The Akaike information criterion and the log-likelihood value are used to compare models. In general, the proposed random walk algorithm shows better performance in mean square error and bias. Finally, the results are applied to electronic component lifetime data.