This book brings together selected peer-reviewed contributions from various research fields in statistics, and highlights the diverse approaches and analyses related to real-life phenomena. Major topics covered in this volume include, but are not limited to, bayesian inference, likelihood approach, pseudo-likelihoods, regression, time series, and data analysis as well as applications in the life and social sciences. The software packages used in the papers are made available by the authors. This book is a result of the 47th Scientific Meeting of the Italian Statistical Society, held at the University of Cagliari, Italy, in 2014.
This book covers modern statistical inference based on likelihood with applications in medicine, epidemiology and biology. Two introductory chapters discuss the importance of statistical models in applied quantitative research and the central role of the likelihood function. The rest of the book is divided into three parts. The first describes likelihood-based inference from a frequentist viewpoint. Properties of the maximum likelihood estimate, the score function, the likelihood ratio and the Wald statistic are discussed in detail. In the second part, likelihood is combined with prior information to perform Bayesian inference. Topics include Bayesian updating, conjugate and reference priors, Bayesian point and interval estimates, Bayesian asymptotics and empirical Bayes methods. Modern numerical techniques for Bayesian inference are described in a separate chapter. Finally two more advanced topics, model choice and prediction, are discussed both from a frequentist and a Bayesian perspective. A comprehensive appendix covers the necessary prerequisites in probability theory, matrix algebra, mathematical calculus, and numerical analysis.
Mounting failures of replication in social and biological sciences give a new urgency to critically appraising proposed reforms. This book pulls back the cover on disagreements between experts charged with restoring integrity to science. It denies two pervasive views of the role of probability in inference: to assign degrees of belief, and to control error rates in a long run. If statistical consumers are unaware of assumptions behind rival evidence reforms, they can't scrutinize the consequences that affect them (in personalized medicine, psychology, etc.). The book sets sail with a simple tool: if little has been done to rule out flaws in inferring a claim, then it has not passed a severe test. Many methods advocated by data experts do not stand up to severe scrutiny and are in tension with successful strategies for blocking or accounting for cherry picking and selective reporting. Through a series of excursions and exhibits, the philosophy and history of inductive inference come alive. Philosophical tools are put to work to solve problems about science and pseudoscience, induction and falsification.
Praise for the first edition: "One of my biggest complaints when I teach introductory statistics classes is that it takes me most of the semester to get to the good stuff—inferential statistics. The author manages to do this very quickly....if one were looking for a book that efficiently covers basic statistical methodology and also introduces statistical software [this text] fits the bill." -The American Statistician Applied Statistical Inference with MINITAB, Second Edition distinguishes itself from other introductory statistics textbooks by focusing on the applications of statistics without compromising mathematical rigor. It presents the material in a seamless step-by-step approach so that readers are first introduced to a topic, given the details of the underlying mathematical foundations along with a detailed description of how to interpret the findings, and are shown how to use the statistical software program Minitab to perform the same analysis. Gives readers a solid foundation in how to apply many different statistical methods. MINITAB is fully integrated throughout the text. Includes fully worked out examples so students can easily follow the calculations. Presents many new topics such as one- and two-sample variances, one- and two-sample Poisson rates, and more nonparametric statistics. Features mostly new exercises as well as the addition of Best Practices sections that describe some common pitfalls and provide some practical advice on statistical inference. This book is written to be user-friendly for students and practitioners who are not experts in statistics, but who want to gain a solid understanding of basic statistical inference. This book is oriented towards the practical use of statistics. The examples, discussions, and exercises are based on data and scenarios that are common to students in their everyday lives.
Theory of Statistical Inference is designed as a reference on statistical inference for researchers and students at the graduate or advanced undergraduate level. It presents a unified treatment of the foundational ideas of modern statistical inference, and would be suitable for a core course in a graduate program in statistics or biostatistics. The emphasis is on the application of mathematical theory to the problem of inference, leading to an optimization theory allowing the choice of those statistical methods yielding the most efficient use of data. The book shows how a small number of key concepts, such as sufficiency, invariance, stochastic ordering, decision theory and vector space algebra play a recurring and unifying role. The volume can be divided into four sections. Part I provides a review of the required distribution theory. Part II introduces the problem of statistical inference. This includes the definitions of the exponential family, invariant and Bayesian models. Basic concepts of estimation, confidence intervals and hypothesis testing are introduced here. Part III constitutes the core of the volume, presenting a formal theory of statistical inference. Beginning with decision theory, this section then covers uniformly minimum variance unbiased (UMVU) estimation, minimum risk equivariant (MRE) estimation and the Neyman-Pearson test. Finally, Part IV introduces large sample theory. This section begins with stochastic limit theorems, the δ-method, the Bahadur representation theorem for sample quantiles, large sample U-estimation, the Cramér-Rao lower bound and asymptotic efficiency. A separate chapter is then devoted to estimating equation methods. The volume ends with a detailed development of large sample hypothesis testing, based on the likelihood ratio test (LRT), Rao score test and the Wald test. Features This volume includes treatment of linear and nonlinear regression models, ANOVA models, generalized linear models (GLM) and generalized estimating equations (GEE). An introduction to decision theory (including risk, admissibility, classification, Bayes and minimax decision rules) is presented. The importance of this sometimes overlooked topic to statistical methodology is emphasized. The volume emphasizes throughout the important role that can be played by group theory and invariance in statistical inference. Nonparametric (rank-based) methods are derived by the same principles used for parametric models and are therefore presented as solutions to well-defined mathematical problems, rather than as robust heuristic alternatives to parametric methods. Each chapter ends with a set of theoretical and applied exercises integrated with the main text. Problems involving R programming are included. Appendices summarize the necessary background in analysis, matrix algebra and group theory.
Praise for the first edition: "One of my biggest complaints when I teach introductory statistics classes is that it takes me most of the semester to get to the good stuff—inferential statistics. The author manages to do this very quickly....if one were looking for a book that efficiently covers basic statistical methodology and also introduces statistical software [this text] fits the bill." -The American Statistician Applied Statistical Inference with MINITAB, Second Edition distinguishes itself from other introductory statistics textbooks by focusing on the applications of statistics without compromising mathematical rigor. It presents the material in a seamless step-by-step approach so that readers are first introduced to a topic, given the details of the underlying mathematical foundations along with a detailed description of how to interpret the findings, and are shown how to use the statistical software program Minitab to perform the same analysis. Gives readers a solid foundation in how to apply many different statistical methods. MINITAB is fully integrated throughout the text. Includes fully worked out examples so students can easily follow the calculations. Presents many new topics such as one- and two-sample variances, one- and two-sample Poisson rates, and more nonparametric statistics. Features mostly new exercises as well as the addition of Best Practices sections that describe some common pitfalls and provide some practical advice on statistical inference. This book is written to be user-friendly for students and practitioners who are not experts in statistics, but who want to gain a solid understanding of basic statistical inference. This book is oriented towards the practical use of statistics. The examples, discussions, and exercises are based on data and scenarios that are common to students in their everyday lives.
This book focuses exclusively on the domain of parametric inference and that, too, from a reader’s perspective, i.e., covering only point estimation of parameter(s). It covers those topics in parametric inference which need clarity of exposure to students, researchers, and teachers alike; mere statements of theorems and proofs may not always reveal the inner beauty and significance of some aspects of inference. To ensure clarity, the book discusses the following topics at an advanced level—(1) sequential (unbiased) point estimation of ‘p’ and its functions; generalization to trinomial and tetranomial populations; (2) some aspects of the use of additional resources in finite population inference; (3) the concept of sufficiency vis-à-vis the notion of sufficient experiments and comparison of experiments; (4) estimation of the size of a finite population with special features; and (5) unbiased estimation of reliability in exponential samples and other settings. This book provides a platform for thought-provoking, creative, and challenging discussions on a variety of topics in statistical estimation theory, it is also ideal for research methodology course for statistics research scholars, and for clarification of basic ideas in topics discussed at basic/advanced levels.
Dedicated to one of the most outstanding researchers in the field of statistics, this volume in honor of C.R. Rao, on the occasion of his 100th birthday, provides a bird’s-eye view of a broad spectrum of research topics, paralleling C.R. Rao’s wide-ranging research interests. The book’s contributors comprise a representative sample of the countless number of researchers whose careers have been influenced by C.R. Rao, through his work or his personal aid and advice. As such, written by experts from more than 15 countries, the book’s original and review contributions address topics including statistical inference, distribution theory, estimation theory, multivariate analysis, hypothesis testing, statistical modeling, design and sampling, shape and circular analysis, and applications. The book will appeal to statistics researchers, theoretical and applied alike, and PhD students. Happy Birthday, C.R. Rao!
The contributions gathered in this book focus on modern methods for statistical learning and modeling in data analysis and present a series of engaging real-world applications. The book covers numerous research topics, ranging from statistical inference and modeling to clustering and factorial methods, from directional data analysis to time series analysis and small area estimation. The applications reflect new analyses in a variety of fields, including medicine, finance, engineering, marketing and cyber risk. The book gathers selected and peer-reviewed contributions presented at the 12th Scientific Meeting of the Classification and Data Analysis Group of the Italian Statistical Society (CLADAG 2019), held in Cassino, Italy, on September 11–13, 2019. CLADAG promotes advanced methodological research in multivariate statistics with a special focus on data analysis and classification, and supports the exchange and dissemination of ideas, methodological concepts, numerical methods, algorithms, and computational and applied results. This book, true to CLADAG’s goals, is intended for researchers and practitioners who are interested in the latest developments and applications in the field of data analysis and classification.
This book highlights the latest research findings from the 46th International Meeting of the Italian Statistical Society (SIS) in Rome, during which both methodological and applied statistical research was discussed. This selection of fully peer-reviewed papers, originally presented at the meeting, addresses a broad range of topics, including the theory of statistical inference; data mining and multivariate statistical analysis; survey methodologies; analysis of social, demographic and health data; and economic statistics and econometrics.
