Asymptotic Properties of the Maximum Quasi-Likelihood Estimator in Quasi-Likelihood Nonlinear Models

Quasi-likelihood nonlinear models (QLNM) are a further extension of generalized linear models by only specifying the expectation and variance functions of the response variable. In this article, some mild regularity conditions are proposed. These regularity conditions, respectively, assure the existence, strong consistency, and the asymptotic normality of the maximum quasi-likelihood estimator (MQLE) in QLNM.     

Influence Diagnostics of Semiparametric Nonlinear Reproductive Dispersion Models

This article proposes a semiparametric nonlinear reproductive dispersion model (SNRDM) which is an extension of nonlinear reproductive dispersion model and semiparametric regression model. Maximum penalized likelihood estimators (MPLEs) of unknown parameters and nonparametric functions in SNRDMs are presented. Some novel diagnostic statistics such as Cook distance and difference deviance for parametric and nonparametric parts are developed to identify influence observations in SNRDMs on the basis of case-deletion method, and some formulae readily computed with the MPLEs algorithm for diagnostic measures are given. The equivalency of case-deletion models and mean-shift outlier models in SNRDM is investigated. A simulation study and a real example are used to illustrate the proposed diagnostic measures.     

Estimation and Asymptotic Properties in Periodic GARCH(1, 1) Models

This article studies the probabilistic structure and asymptotic inference of the first-order periodic generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (PGARCH(1, 1)) models in which the parameters in volatility process are allowed to switch between different regimes. First, we establish necessary and sufficient conditions for a PGARCH(1, 1) process to have a unique stationary solution (in periodic sense) and for the existence of moments of any order. Second, using the representation of squared PGARCH(1, 1) model as a PARMA(1, 1) model, we then consider Yule-Walker type estimators for the parameters in PGARCH(1, 1) model and derives their consistency and asymptotic normality. The estimator can be surprisingly efficient for quite small numbers of autocorrelations and, in some cases can be more efficient than the least squares estimate (LSE). We use a residual bootstrap to define bootstrap estimators for the Yule-Walker estimates and prove the consistency of this bootstrap method. A set of numerical experiments illustrates the practical relevance of our theoretical results.     

Asymptotic Properties of Adaptive Likelihood Weights by Cross-Validation

For clinical trials on neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, the distributions of psychometric measures for both placebo and treatment groups are generally skewed because of the characteristics of the diseases. Through an analytical, but computationally intensive, algorithm, we specifically compare power curves between 3- and 7-category ordinal logistic regression models in terms of the probability of detecting the treatment effect, assuming a symmetric distribution or skewed distributions for the placebo group. The proportional odds assumption under the ordinal logistic regression model plays an important role in these comparisons. The results indicate that there is no significant difference in the power curves between 3-category and 7-category response models where a symmetric distribution is assumed for the placebo group. However, when the skewness becomes more extreme for the placebo group, the loss of power can be substantial.     

Asymptotic Skewness in Exponential Family Nonlinear Models

In this article, we give an asymptotic formula of order n ^?1/2, where n is the sample size, for the skewness of the distributions of the maximum likelihood estimates of the pa-ra-meters in exponencial family nonlinear models. We generalize the result by Cordeiro and Cordeiro (2001 Cordeiro , H. H. , Cordeiro , G. M. ( 2001 ). Skewness for parameters in generalized linear models . Commun. Statist. Theor. Meth. 30 : 1317 – 1334 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The formula is given in matrix notation and is very suitable for computer implementation and to obtain closed form expressions for a great variety of models. Some special cases and two applications are discussed.     

Bayesian Analysis of Nonlinear Reproductive Dispersion Mixed Models for Longitudinal Data with Nonignorable Missing Covariates

This article proposes a Bayesian approach, which can simultaneously obtain the Bayesian estimates of unknown parameters and random effects, to analyze nonlinear reproductive dispersion mixed models (NRDMMs) for longitudinal data with nonignorable missing covariates and responses. The logistic regression model is employed to model the missing data mechanisms for missing covariates and responses. A hybrid sampling procedure combining the Gibber sampler and the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm is presented to draw observations from the conditional distributions. Because missing data mechanism is not testable, we develop the logarithm of the pseudo-marginal likelihood, deviance information criterion, the Bayes factor, and the pseudo-Bayes factor to compare several competing missing data mechanism models in the current considered NRDMMs with nonignorable missing covaraites and responses. Three simulation studies and a real example taken from the paediatric AIDS clinical trial group ACTG are used to illustrate the proposed methodologies. Empirical results show that our proposed methods are effective in selecting missing data mechanism models.     

Asymptotic Properties of Quasi-Maximum Likelihood Estimates in Generalized Linear Models

This article introduces a novel method, named JC ₁, for obtaining G-efficient mixture design to fit quadratic models. The advantage of JC ₁ method over existing algorithms is that it gives G-efficient designs without need of generating all the extreme vertices, edge centroids and constraint plane centroids of the mixture experimental region. The performance of the new method is illustrated and its comparison is given with popularly used algorithms—Snee (1975) algorithm and Welch (1985 Welch , W. J. ( 1985 ). ACED: Algorithms for the construction of experimental designs . Amer. Statistician 39 : 146 .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) ACED algorithm for second-order (quadratic model) designs and it is observed that JC ₁ method performs as well as the existing methods or sometimes better than those with additional advantage of large savings in computational efforts.     

Asymptotic properties of maximum quasi-likelihood estimator in quasi-likelihood non linear models with stochastic regression

In this paper, we establish the asymptotic properties of maximum quasi-likelihood estimator (MQLE) in quasi-likelihood non linear models (QLNMs) with stochastic regression under some mild regular conditions. We also investigate the existence, strong consistency, and asymptotic normality of MQLE in QLNMs with stochastic regression.     

Asymptotic properties of the estimators of the semi-parametric spatial regression model

Spatial data and non parametric methods arise frequently in studies of different areas and it is a common practice to analyze such data with semi-parametric spatial autoregressive (SPSAR) models. We propose the estimations of SPSAR models based on maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) and kernel estimation. The estimation of spatial regression coefficient ρ was done by optimizing the concentrated log-likelihood function with respect to ρ. Furthermore, under appropriate conditions, we derive the limiting distributions of our estimators for both the parametric and non parametric components in the model.     

Convergence Rate of Strong Consistency of the Maximum Likelihood Estimator in Exponential Family Nonlinear Models

This article proposes some regularity conditions. On the basis of the proposed regularity conditions, we show the strong consistency of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) in exponential family nonlinear models (EFNM) and give its convergence rate. In an important case, we obtain the convergence rate O(n ^?1/2(log log n)^1/2)—the rate as that in the Law of the Iterated Logarithm (LIL) for iid partial sums and thus cannot be improved anymore.     

Asymptotic Theory for the QMLE in GARCH-X Models With Stationary and Nonstationary Covariates

This article investigates the asymptotic properties of the Gaussian quasi-maximum-likelihood estimators (QMLE’s) of the GARCH model augmented by including an additional explanatory variable—the so-called GARCH-X model. The additional covariate is allowed to exhibit any degree of persistence as captured by its long-memory parameter d_x; in particular, we allow for both stationary and nonstationary covariates. We show that the QMLE’s of the parameters entering the volatility equation are consistent and mixed-normally distributed in large samples. The convergence rates and limiting distributions of the QMLE’s depend on whether the regressor is stationary or not. However, standard inferential tools for the parameters are robust to the level of persistence of the regressor with t-statistics following standard Normal distributions in large sample irrespective of whether the regressor is stationary or not. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

Estimation of Measures in M/M/1 Queue

Maximum likelihood and uniform minimum variance unbiased estimators of steady-state probability distribution of system size, probability of at least ? customers in the system in steady state, and certain steady-state measures of effectiveness in the M/M/1 queue are obtained/derived based on observations on X, the number of customer arrivals during a service time. The estimators are compared using Asympotic Expected Deficiency (AED) criterion leading to recommendation of uniform minimum variance unbiased estimators over maximum likelihood estimators for some measures.     

The Asymptotic Covariance Matrix of the Least Squares Estimator in the Stochastic Linear Regression Model: The Case of Elliptically Symmetric Distribution

This article considers the unconditional asymptotic covariance matrix of the least squares estimator in the linear regression model with stochastic explanatory variables. The asymptotic covariance matrix of the least squares estimator of regression parameters is evaluated relative to the standard asymptotic covariance matrix when the joint distribution of the dependent and explanatory variables is in the class of elliptically symmetric distributions. An empirical example using financial data is presented. Numerical examples and simulation experiments are given to illustrate the difference of the two asymptotic covariance matrices.     

Jackknife Estimation for Smooth Functions of the Parametric Component in Partially Linear Regression Models

Abstract

It is known that due to the existence of the nonparametric component, the usual estimators for the parametric component or its function in partially linear regression models are biased. Sometimes this bias is severe. To reduce the bias, we propose two jackknife estimators and compare them with the naive estimator. All three estimators are shown to be asymptotically equivalent and asymptotically normally distributed under some regularity conditions. However, through simulation we demonstrate that the jackknife estimators perform better than the naive estimator in terms of bias when the sample size is small to moderate. To make our results more useful, we also construct consistent estimators of the asymptotic variance, which are robust against heterogeneity of the error variances.     

An EM and a Stochastic Version of the EM Algorithm for Nonparametric Hidden Semi-Markov Models

The Hidden semi-Markov models (HSMMs) were introduced to overcome the constraint of a geometric sojourn time distribution for the different hidden states in the classical hidden Markov models. Several variations of HSMMs were proposed that model the sojourn times by a parametric or a nonparametric family of distributions. In this article, we concentrate our interest on the nonparametric case where the duration distributions are attached to transitions and not to states as in most of the published papers in HSMMs. Therefore, it is worth noticing that here we treat the underlying hidden semi-Markov chain in its general probabilistic structure. In that case, Barbu and Limnios (2008 Barbu , V. , Limnios , N. ( 2008 ). Semi-Markov Chains and Hidden Semi-Markov Models Toward Applications: Their Use in Reliability and DNA Analysis . New York : Springer . [Google Scholar]) proposed an Expectation–Maximization (EM) algorithm in order to estimate the semi-Markov kernel and the emission probabilities that characterize the dynamics of the model. In this article, we consider an improved version of Barbu and Limnios' EM algorithm which is faster than the original one. Moreover, we propose a stochastic version of the EM algorithm that achieves comparable estimates with the EM algorithm in less execution time. Some numerical examples are provided which illustrate the efficient performance of the proposed algorithms.     

The Use of Working Variables in the Bayesian Modeling of Mean and Dispersion Parameters in Generalized Nonlinear Models with Random Effects

This article is aimed at reviewing a novel Bayesian approach to handle inference and estimation in the class of generalized nonlinear models. These models include some of the main techniques of statistical methodology, namely generalized linear models and parametric nonlinear regression. In addition, this proposal extends to methods for the systematic treatment of variation that is not explicitly predicted within the model, through the inclusion of random effects, and takes into account the modeling of dispersion parameters in the class of two-parameter exponential family. The methodology is based on the implementation of a two-stage algorithm that induces a hybrid approach based on numerical methods for approximating the likelihood to a normal density using a Taylor linearization around the values of current parameters in an MCMC routine.     

Asymptotic properties of approximate maximum quasi-likelihood estimator in quasi-likelihood nonlinear models with random effects

Quasi-likelihood nonlinear models with random effects (QLNMWRE) include generalized linear models with random effects and quasi-likelihood nonlinear models as special cases. In this paper, some regularity conditions analogous to those given by Breslow and Clatyton (1993) are proposed. On the basis of the proposed regularity conditions and Laplace approximation, the existence, the strong consistency and asymptotic normality of the approximate maximum quasi-likelihood estimation of the fixed effects are proved in QLNMWRE.     

Asymptotic properties of maximum quasi-likelihood estimator in quasi-likelihood nonlinear models with misspecified variance function

The quasi-likelihood function proposed by Wedderburn [Quasi-likelihood functions, generalized linear models, and the Gauss–Newton method. Biometrika. 1974;61:439–447] broadened the application scope of generalized linear models (GLM) by specifying the mean and variance function instead of the entire distribution. However, in many situations, complete specification of variance function in the quasi-likelihood approach may not be realistic. Following Fahrmeir's [Maximum likelihood estimation in misspecified generalized linear models. Statistics. 1990;21:487–502] treating with misspecified GLM, we define a quasi-likelihood nonlinear models (QLNM) with misspecified variance function by replacing the unknown variance function with a known function. In this paper, we propose some mild regularity conditions, under which the existence and the asymptotic normality of the maximum quasi-likelihood estimator (MQLE) are obtained in QLNM with misspecified variance function. We suggest computing MQLE of unknown parameter in QLNM with misspecified variance function by the Gauss–Newton iteration procedure and show it to work well in a simulation study.