Recent Advances and Future Directions in Causality, Prediction, and Specification Analysis

Recent Advances and Future Directions in Causality, Prediction, and Specification Analysis

Author: Xiaohong Chen

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-08-01

Total Pages: 582

ISBN-13: 1461416531

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This book is a collection of articles that present the most recent cutting edge results on specification and estimation of economic models written by a number of the world’s foremost leaders in the fields of theoretical and methodological econometrics. Recent advances in asymptotic approximation theory, including the use of higher order asymptotics for things like estimator bias correction, and the use of various expansion and other theoretical tools for the development of bootstrap techniques designed for implementation when carrying out inference are at the forefront of theoretical development in the field of econometrics. One important feature of these advances in the theory of econometrics is that they are being seamlessly and almost immediately incorporated into the “empirical toolbox” that applied practitioners use when actually constructing models using data, for the purposes of both prediction and policy analysis and the more theoretically targeted chapters in the book will discuss these developments. Turning now to empirical methodology, chapters on prediction methodology will focus on macroeconomic and financial applications, such as the construction of diffusion index models for forecasting with very large numbers of variables, and the construction of data samples that result in optimal predictive accuracy tests when comparing alternative prediction models. Chapters carefully outline how applied practitioners can correctly implement the latest theoretical refinements in model specification in order to “build” the best models using large-scale and traditional datasets, making the book of interest to a broad readership of economists from theoretical econometricians to applied economic practitioners.


The Fundamentals of Heavy Tails

The Fundamentals of Heavy Tails

Author: Jayakrishnan Nair

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-06-09

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 1009062964

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Heavy tails –extreme events or values more common than expected –emerge everywhere: the economy, natural events, and social and information networks are just a few examples. Yet after decades of progress, they are still treated as mysterious, surprising, and even controversial, primarily because the necessary mathematical models and statistical methods are not widely known. This book, for the first time, provides a rigorous introduction to heavy-tailed distributions accessible to anyone who knows elementary probability. It tackles and tames the zoo of terminology for models and properties, demystifying topics such as the generalized central limit theorem and regular variation. It tracks the natural emergence of heavy-tailed distributions from a wide variety of general processes, building intuition. And it reveals the controversy surrounding heavy tails to be the result of flawed statistics, then equips readers to identify and estimate with confidence. Over 100 exercises complete this engaging package.


Functional Form and Heterogeneity in Models for Count Data

Functional Form and Heterogeneity in Models for Count Data

Author: William Greene

Publisher: Now Publishers Inc

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 120

ISBN-13: 160198054X

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This study presents several extensions of the most familiar models for count data, the Poisson and negative binomial models. We develop an encompassing model for two well-known variants of the negative binomial model (the NB1 and NB2 forms). We then analyze some alternative approaches to the standard log gamma model for introducing heterogeneity into the loglinear conditional means for these models. The lognormal model provides a versatile alternative specification that is more flexible (and more natural) than the log gamma form, and provides a platform for several "two part" extensions, including zero inflation, hurdle, and sample selection models. (We briefly present some alternative approaches to modeling heterogeneity.) We also resolve some features in Hausman, Hall and Griliches (1984, Economic models for count data with an application to the patents-R & D relationship, Econometrica 52, 909-938) widely used panel data treatments for the Poisson and negative binomial models that appear to conflict with more familiar models of fixed and random effects. Finally, we consider a bivariate Poisson model that is also based on the lognormal heterogeneity model. Two recent applications have used this model. We suggest that the correlation estimated in their model frameworks is an ambiguous measure of the correlation of the variables of interest, and may substantially overstate it. We conclude with a detailed application of the proposed methods using the data employed in one of the two aforementioned bivariate Poisson studies


Statistical Consequences of Fat Tails

Statistical Consequences of Fat Tails

Author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Publisher:

Published: 2020-06-30

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781544508054

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The book investigates the misapplication of conventional statistical techniques to fat tailed distributions and looks for remedies, when possible. Switching from thin tailed to fat tailed distributions requires more than "changing the color of the dress." Traditional asymptotics deal mainly with either n=1 or n=∞, and the real world is in between, under the "laws of the medium numbers"-which vary widely across specific distributions. Both the law of large numbers and the generalized central limit mechanisms operate in highly idiosyncratic ways outside the standard Gaussian or Levy-Stable basins of convergence. A few examples: - The sample mean is rarely in line with the population mean, with effect on "naïve empiricism," but can be sometimes be estimated via parametric methods. - The "empirical distribution" is rarely empirical. - Parameter uncertainty has compounding effects on statistical metrics. - Dimension reduction (principal components) fails. - Inequality estimators (Gini or quantile contributions) are not additive and produce wrong results. - Many "biases" found in psychology become entirely rational under more sophisticated probability distributions. - Most of the failures of financial economics, econometrics, and behavioral economics can be attributed to using the wrong distributions. This book, the first volume of the Technical Incerto, weaves a narrative around published journal articles.


Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation

Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation

Author: Kenneth Train

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2009-07-06

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 0521766559

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This book describes the new generation of discrete choice methods, focusing on the many advances that are made possible by simulation. Researchers use these statistical methods to examine the choices that consumers, households, firms, and other agents make. Each of the major models is covered: logit, generalized extreme value, or GEV (including nested and cross-nested logits), probit, and mixed logit, plus a variety of specifications that build on these basics. Simulation-assisted estimation procedures are investigated and compared, including maximum stimulated likelihood, method of simulated moments, and method of simulated scores. Procedures for drawing from densities are described, including variance reduction techniques such as anithetics and Halton draws. Recent advances in Bayesian procedures are explored, including the use of the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm and its variant Gibbs sampling. The second edition adds chapters on endogeneity and expectation-maximization (EM) algorithms. No other book incorporates all these fields, which have arisen in the past 25 years. The procedures are applicable in many fields, including energy, transportation, environmental studies, health, labor, and marketing.


Modeling Ordered Choices

Modeling Ordered Choices

Author: William H. Greene

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2010-04-08

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 1139485954

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It is increasingly common for analysts to seek out the opinions of individuals and organizations using attitudinal scales such as degree of satisfaction or importance attached to an issue. Examples include levels of obesity, seriousness of a health condition, attitudes towards service levels, opinions on products, voting intentions, and the degree of clarity of contracts. Ordered choice models provide a relevant methodology for capturing the sources of influence that explain the choice made amongst a set of ordered alternatives. The methods have evolved to a level of sophistication that can allow for heterogeneity in the threshold parameters, in the explanatory variables (through random parameters), and in the decomposition of the residual variance. This book brings together contributions in ordered choice modeling from a number of disciplines, synthesizing developments over the last fifty years, and suggests useful extensions to account for the wide range of sources of influence on choice.


Misspecification Tests in Econometrics

Misspecification Tests in Econometrics

Author: L. G. Godfrey

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780521424592

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Misspecification tests play an important role in detecting unreliable and inadequate economic models. This book brings together many results from the growing literature in econometrics on misspecification testing. It provides theoretical analyses and convenient methods for application. The main emphasis is on the Lagrange multiplier principle, which provides considerable unification, although several other approaches are also considered. The author also examines general checks for model adequacy that do not involve formulation of an alternative hypothesis. General and specific tests are discussed in the context of multiple regression models, systems of simultaneous equations, and models with qualitative or limited dependent variables.


All of Statistics

All of Statistics

Author: Larry Wasserman

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-12-11

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 0387217363

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Taken literally, the title "All of Statistics" is an exaggeration. But in spirit, the title is apt, as the book does cover a much broader range of topics than a typical introductory book on mathematical statistics. This book is for people who want to learn probability and statistics quickly. It is suitable for graduate or advanced undergraduate students in computer science, mathematics, statistics, and related disciplines. The book includes modern topics like non-parametric curve estimation, bootstrapping, and classification, topics that are usually relegated to follow-up courses. The reader is presumed to know calculus and a little linear algebra. No previous knowledge of probability and statistics is required. Statistics, data mining, and machine learning are all concerned with collecting and analysing data.


Nonparametric Econometrics

Nonparametric Econometrics

Author: Qi Li

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2011-10-09

Total Pages: 769

ISBN-13: 1400841062

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A comprehensive, up-to-date textbook on nonparametric methods for students and researchers Until now, students and researchers in nonparametric and semiparametric statistics and econometrics have had to turn to the latest journal articles to keep pace with these emerging methods of economic analysis. Nonparametric Econometrics fills a major gap by gathering together the most up-to-date theory and techniques and presenting them in a remarkably straightforward and accessible format. The empirical tests, data, and exercises included in this textbook help make it the ideal introduction for graduate students and an indispensable resource for researchers. Nonparametric and semiparametric methods have attracted a great deal of attention from statisticians in recent decades. While the majority of existing books on the subject operate from the presumption that the underlying data is strictly continuous in nature, more often than not social scientists deal with categorical data—nominal and ordinal—in applied settings. The conventional nonparametric approach to dealing with the presence of discrete variables is acknowledged to be unsatisfactory. This book is tailored to the needs of applied econometricians and social scientists. Qi Li and Jeffrey Racine emphasize nonparametric techniques suited to the rich array of data types—continuous, nominal, and ordinal—within one coherent framework. They also emphasize the properties of nonparametric estimators in the presence of potentially irrelevant variables. Nonparametric Econometrics covers all the material necessary to understand and apply nonparametric methods for real-world problems.