A modified likelihood ratio test for homogeneity in finite mixture models

Testing for homogeneity in finite mixture models has been investigated by many researchers. The asymptotic null distribution of the likelihood ratio test (LRT) is very complex and difficult to use in practice. We propose a modified LRT for homogeneity in finite mixture models with a general parametric kernel distribution family. The modified LRT has a χ-type of null limiting distribution and is asymptotically most powerful under local alternatives. Simulations show that it performs better than competing tests. They also reveal that the limiting distribution with some adjustment can satisfactorily approximate the quantiles of the test statistic, even for moderate sample sizes.     

对我国当前货币政策的分析

文章从理论依据和现实考察两方面分析货币政策的操作效果,并对今后我国货币政策的操作方向提出了若干建议.     

句法角色与话题性对实体突显性的影响

句法角色与话题性都会影响语篇实体的突显性程度。采用汉语续写实验,将实验句置于语境之中,在句法角色恒定条件下操控话题性和指称形式等变量,可探察实体作为语篇话题和非话题在续写时的表征趋势,即重述形式。实验发现,在续写初期,话题性不能影响实体的重述,它与句法角色之间无交互作用|在续写后期,话题性确实对实体重述起到一定作用。此外,目标句给定指称形式虽然不影响实体重述,但在一定条件下会影响被试对重述形式的选择。     

Three-part model for fractional response variables with application to Chinese household health insurance coverage

A survey on health insurance was conducted in July and August of 2011 in three major cities in China. In this study, we analyze the household coverage rate, which is an important index of the quality of health insurance. The coverage rate is restricted to the unit interval [0, 1], and it may differ from other rate data in that the “two corners” are nonzero. That is, there are nonzero probabilities of zero and full coverage. Such data may also be encountered in economics, finance, medicine, and many other areas. The existing approaches may not be able to properly accommodate such data. In this study, we develop a three-part model that properly describes fractional response variables with non-ignorable zeros and ones. We investigate estimation and inference under two proportional constraints on the regression parameters. Such constraints may lead to more lucid interpretations and fewer unknown parameters and hence more accurate estimation. A simulation study is conducted to compare the performance of constrained and unconstrained models and show that estimation under constraint can be more efficient. The analysis of household health insurance coverage data suggests that household size, income, expense, and presence of chronic disease are associated with insurance coverage.     

A Markov regime‐switching model for crude‐oil markets: Comparison of composite likelihood and full likelihood

We use the two‐state Markov regime‐switching model to explain the behaviour of the WTI crude‐oil spot prices from January 1986 to February 2012. We investigated the use of methods based on the composite likelihood and the full likelihood. We found that the composite‐likelihood approach can better capture the general structural changes in world oil prices. The two‐state Markov regime‐switching model based on the composite‐likelihood approach closely depicts the cycles of the two postulated states: fall and rise. These two states persist for on average 8 and 15 months, which matches the observed cycles during the period. According to the fitted model, drops in oil prices are more volatile than rises. We believe that this information can be useful for financial officers working in related areas. The model based on the full‐likelihood approach was less satisfactory. We attribute its failure to the fact that the two‐state Markov regime‐switching model is too rigid and overly simplistic. In comparison, the composite likelihood requires only that the model correctly specifies the joint distribution of two adjacent price changes. Thus, model violations in other areas do not invalidate the results. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 41: 353–367; 2013 © 2013 Statistical Society of Canada     

收入分布函数在收入不平等研究领域的应用

收入分布函数的研究对于收入不平等的探讨意义重大,但是国内该领域的研究尚待进一步的拓展。笔者在文献回顾的基础上梳理了国外的相关研究,把常用的分布函数分成两参数分布和多参数分布函数两类,介绍了各类函数拟合居民实际收入分布的效果及其与基尼系数的关系;同时,本文剖析了各类函数之间的内在联系;进一步,基于分布函数的角度,笔者研究了收入流动性与收入不平等之间的联系,分析了平均数和中位数比值与基尼系数之间的数学关系以及如何利用该比值来估计分布函数的参数。利用这些研究结果,文章探讨了2010年我国城镇居民的收入结构和贫困问题并提出了一些前瞻性的研究建议。     

Extended BIC for linear regression models with diverging number of relevant features and high or ultra-high feature spaces

In many conventional scientific investigations with high or ultra-high dimensional feature spaces, the relevant features, though sparse, are large in number compared with classical statistical problems, and the magnitude of their effects tapers off. It is reasonable to model the number of relevant features as a diverging sequence when sample size increases. In this paper, we investigate the properties of the extended Bayes information criterion (EBIC) (Chen and Chen, 2008) for feature selection in linear regression models with diverging number of relevant features in high or ultra-high dimensional feature spaces. The selection consistency of the EBIC in this situation is established. The application of EBIC to feature selection is considered in a SCAD cum EBIC procedure. Simulation studies are conducted to demonstrate the performance of the SCAD cum EBIC procedure in finite sample cases.     

经济增速放缓与经济波动对居民福利影响的阶段差异分析

 本文基于中国1952-2007年时序数据定量研究经济增速放缓的福利损失和经济波动的福利损失,并侧重考察两种福利损失的大小关系在改革开放和经济体制改革目标确立前后的阶段差异。研究发现,无论是总体而言,还是在中国经济发展的不同阶段,经济波动的福利损失并不必然远小于经济增速放缓的福利损失,在相关参数的合理取值范围内,经济波动的福利损失大于经济增速放缓的福利损失是相当普遍的情形。因此,中国政府部门在重视长期经济增长的同时,不能草率否定短期经济稳定的重要性。     

Generation of multivariate distributions by vertical density representation

Troutt (1991,1993) proposed the idea of the vertical density representation (VDR) based on Box-Millar method. Kotz, Fang and Liang (1997) provided a systematic study on the multivariate vertical density representation (MVDR). Suppose that we want to generate a random vector X[d]Rⁿthat has a density function ?(x). The key point of using the MVDR is to generate the uniform distribution on [D]_?(v) = {x :?(x) = v} for any v > 0 which is the surface in RⁿIn this paper we use the conditional distribution method to generate the uniform distribution on a domain or on some surface and based on it we proposed an alternative version of the MVDR(type 2 MVDR), by which one can transfer the problem of generating a random vector X with given density f to one of generating (X, X_n+i) that follows the uniform distribution on a region in Rⁿ⁺¹defined by ?. Several examples indicate that the proposed method is quite practical.