Composite Marginal Likelihoods to the Normal Bradley-Terry Model

Inference in generalized linear mixed models with crossed random effects is often made cumbersome by the high-dimensional intractable integrals involved in the marginal likelihood. This article presents two inferential approaches based on the marginal composite likelihood for the normal Bradley-Terry model. The two approaches are illustrated by a simulation study to evaluate their performance. Thereafter, the asymptotic variances of the estimated variance component are compared.     

Regenerative Markov Chain Monte Carlo for Any Distribution

While Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods are frequently used for difficult calculations in a wide range of scientific disciplines, they suffer from a serious limitation: their samples are not independent and identically distributed. Consequently, estimates of expectations are biased if the initial value of the chain is not drawn from the target distribution. Regenerative simulation provides an elegant solution to this problem. In this article, we propose a simple regenerative MCMC algorithm to generate variates for any distribution.     

Bootstrapping the Hausman Test in Panel Data Models

In the article, it is shown that in panel data models the Hausman test (HT) statistic can be considerably refined using the bootstrap technique. Edgeworth expansion shows that the coverage of the bootstrapped HT is second-order correct.

The asymptotic versus the bootstrapped HT are compared also by Monte Carlo simulations. At the null hypothesis and a nominal size of 0.05, the bootstrapped HT reduces the coverage error of the asymptotic HT by 10–40% of nominal size; for nominal sizes less than or equal to 0.025, the coverage error reduction is between 30% and 80% of nominal size. For the nonnull alternatives, the power of the asymptotic HT fictitiously increases by over 70% of the correct power for nominal sizes less than or equal to 0.025; the bootstrapped HT reduces overrejection to less than one fourth of its value. The advantages of the bootstrapped HT increase with the number of explanatory variables.

Heteroscedasticity or serial correlation in the idiosyncratic part of the error does not hamper advantages of the bootstrapped version of HT, if a heteroscedasticity robust version of the HT and the wild bootstrap are used. But, the power penalty is not negligible if a heteroscedasticity robust approach is used in the homoscedastic panel data model.     

Approximate Bayesian Computation for Exponential Random Graph Models for Large Social Networks

We consider the issue of sampling from the posterior distribution of exponential random graph (ERG) models and other statistical models with intractable normalizing constants. Existing methods based on exact sampling are either infeasible or require very long computing time. We study a class of approximate Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling schemes that deal with this issue. We also develop a new Metropolis–Hastings kernel to sample sparse large networks from ERG models. We illustrate the proposed methods on several examples.     

A note on estimation in bernoulli trials with dependence

Finite sample properties of estimators for the parameters of a dependent Bernoulli process are investigated using Monte Carlo techniques. A ratio estimator is proposed for the dependence parameter of the model and is compared to the approximate maximum likelihood estimator given by Klotz. It is shown that both estimators have a downward bias that is extreme in certain cases and that samples well in excess of 200 may be necessary before the asymptotic theory can be applied.     

A monte carlo investigation of a statistic for a bivariate missing data problem

Testing the equal means hypothesis of a bivariate normal distribution with homoscedastic varlates when the data are incomplete is considered. If the correlational parameter, ρ, is known, the well-known theory of the general linear model is easily employed to construct the likelihood ratio test for the two sided alternative. A statistic, T, for the case of ρ unknown is proposed by direct analogy to the likelihood ratio statistic when ρ is known. The null and nonnull distribution of T is investigated by Monte Carlo techniques. It is concluded that T may be compared to the conventional t distribution for testing the null hypothesis and that this procedure results in a substantial increase in power-efficiency over the procedure based on the paired t test which ignores the incomplete data. A Monte Carlo comparison to two statistics proposed by Lin and Stivers (1974) suggests that the test based on T is more conservative than either of their statistics.     

Simulation of the p-generalized Gaussian distribution

In this paper, we introduce the p-generalized polar methods for the simulation of the p-generalized Gaussian distribution. On the basis of geometric measure representations, the well-known Box–Muller method and the Marsaglia–Bray rejecting polar method for the simulation of the Gaussian distribution are generalized to simulate the p-generalized Gaussian distribution, which fits much more flexibly to data than the Gaussian distribution and has already been applied in various fields of modern sciences. To prove the correctness of the p-generalized polar methods, we give stochastic representations, and to demonstrate their adequacy, we perform a comparison of six simulation techniques w.r.t. the goodness of fit and the complexity. The competing methods include adapted general methods and another special method. Furthermore, we prove stochastic representations for all the adapted methods.     

Approximate Bayes estimation of the parameters and reliability function of a mixture of two inverse Weibull distributions under Type-2 censoring

The main goal of this paper is to develop the approximate Bayes estimation of the five-dimensional vector of the parameters and reliability function of a mixture of two inverse Weibull distributions (MTIWD) under Type-2 censoring. Usually, the posterior distribution is complicated under the scheme of Type-2 censoring and the integrals that are involved cannot be obtained in a simple explicit form. In this study, we use Lindley's [Approximate Bayesian method, Trabajos Estadist. 31 (1980), pp. 223–237] approximate form of Bayes estimation in the case of an MTIWD under Type-2 censoring. Later, we calculate the estimated risks (ERs) of the Bayes estimates and compare them with the corresponding ERs of the maximum-likelihood estimates through Monte Carlo simulation. Finally, we analyse a real data set using the findings.     

Estimation of a discriminant function from a mixture of two inverse Weibull distributions

The classification of a random variable based on a mixture can be meaningfully discussed only if the class of all finite mixtures is identifiable. In this paper, we find the maximum-likelihood estimates of the parameters of the mixture of two inverse Weibull distributions by using classified and unclassified observations. Next, we estimate the nonlinear discriminant function of the underlying model. Also, we calculate the total probabilities of misclassification as well as the percentage bias. In addition, we investigate the performance of all results through a series of simulation experiments by means of relative efficiencies. Finally, we analyse some simulated and real data sets through the findings of the paper.     

The robustness of the systemwise breusch-godfrey autocorrelation test for non-normal distributed error terms

Using Monte Carlo methods, the properties of systemwise generalisations of the Breusch-Godfrey test for autocorrelated errors are studied in situations when the error terms follow either normal or non-normal distributions, and when these errors follow either AR(1) or MA(1) processes. Edgerton and Shukur (1999) studied the properties of the test using normally distributed error terms and when these errors follow an AR(1) process. When the errors follow a non-normal distribution, the performances of the tests deteriorate especially when the tails are very heavy. The performances of the tests become better (as in the case when the errors are generated by the normal distribution) when the errors are less heavy tailed.