Diffusion processes are a promising instrument for realistically modelling the time-continuous evolution of phenomena not only in the natural sciences but also in finance and economics. Their mathematical theory, however, is challenging, and hence diffusion modelling is often carried out incorrectly, and the according statistical inference is considered almost exclusively by theoreticians. This book explains both topics in an illustrative way which also addresses practitioners. It provides a complete overview of the current state of research and presents important, novel insights. The theory is demonstrated using real data applications.
The first book in inference for stochastic processes from a statistical, rather than a probabilistic, perspective. It provides a systematic exposition of theoretical results from over ten years of mathematical literature and presents, for the first time in book form, many new techniques and approaches.
Decision making in all spheres of activity involves uncertainty. If rational decisions have to be made, they have to be based on the past observations of the phenomenon in question. Data collection, model building and inference from the data collected, validation of the model and refinement of the model are the key steps or building blocks involved in any rational decision making process. Stochastic processes are widely used for model building in the social, physical, engineering, and life sciences as well as in financial economics. Statistical inference for stochastic processes is of great importance from the theoretical as well as from applications point of view in model building. During the past twenty years, there has been a large amount of progress in the study of inferential aspects for continuous as well as discrete time stochastic processes. Diffusion type processes are a large class of continuous time processes which are widely used for stochastic modelling. the book aims to bring together several methods of estimation of parameters involved in such processes when the process is observed continuously over a period of time or when sampled data is available as generally feasible.
This book presents various results and techniques from the theory of stochastic processes that are useful in the study of stochastic problems in the natural sciences. The main focus is analytical methods, although numerical methods and statistical inference methodologies for studying diffusion processes are also presented. The goal is the development of techniques that are applicable to a wide variety of stochastic models that appear in physics, chemistry and other natural sciences. Applications such as stochastic resonance, Brownian motion in periodic potentials and Brownian motors are studied and the connection between diffusion processes and time-dependent statistical mechanics is elucidated. The book contains a large number of illustrations, examples, and exercises. It will be useful for graduate-level courses on stochastic processes for students in applied mathematics, physics and engineering. Many of the topics covered in this book (reversible diffusions, convergence to equilibrium for diffusion processes, inference methods for stochastic differential equations, derivation of the generalized Langevin equation, exit time problems) cannot be easily found in textbook form and will be useful to both researchers and students interested in the applications of stochastic processes.
The YUIMA package is the first comprehensive R framework based on S4 classes and methods which allows for the simulation of stochastic differential equations driven by Wiener process, Lévy processes or fractional Brownian motion, as well as CARMA, COGARCH, and Point processes. The package performs various central statistical analyses such as quasi maximum likelihood estimation, adaptive Bayes estimation, structural change point analysis, hypotheses testing, asynchronous covariance estimation, lead-lag estimation, LASSO model selection, and so on. YUIMA also supports stochastic numerical analysis by fast computation of the expected value of functionals of stochastic processes through automatic asymptotic expansion by means of the Malliavin calculus. All models can be multidimensional, multiparametric or non parametric.The book explains briefly the underlying theory for simulation and inference of several classes of stochastic processes and then presents both simulation experiments and applications to real data. Although these processes have been originally proposed in physics and more recently in finance, they are becoming popular also in biology due to the fact the time course experimental data are now available. The YUIMA package, available on CRAN, can be freely downloaded and this companion book will make the user able to start his or her analysis from the first page.
Focussing on stochastic models for the spread of infectious diseases in a human population, this book is the outcome of a two-week ICPAM/CIMPA school on "Stochastic models of epidemics" which took place in Ziguinchor, Senegal, December 5–16, 2015. The text is divided into four parts, each based on one of the courses given at the school: homogeneous models (Tom Britton and Etienne Pardoux), two-level mixing models (David Sirl and Frank Ball), epidemics on graphs (Viet Chi Tran), and statistics for epidemic models (Catherine Larédo). The CIMPA school was aimed at PhD students and Post Docs in the mathematical sciences. Parts (or all) of this book can be used as the basis for traditional or individual reading courses on the topic. For this reason, examples and exercises (some with solutions) are provided throughout.
Parameter estimation in stochastic differential equations and stochastic partial differential equations is the science, art and technology of modeling complex phenomena. The subject has attracted researchers from several areas of mathematics. This volume presents the estimation of the unknown parameters in the corresponding continuous models based on continuous and discrete observations and examines extensively maximum likelihood, minimum contrast and Bayesian methods.
This is the first book designed to introduce Bayesian inference procedures for stochastic processes. There are clear advantages to the Bayesian approach (including the optimal use of prior information). Initially, the book begins with a brief review of Bayesian inference and uses many examples relevant to the analysis of stochastic processes, including the four major types, namely those with discrete time and discrete state space and continuous time and continuous state space. The elements necessary to understanding stochastic processes are then introduced, followed by chapters devoted to the Bayesian analysis of such processes. It is important that a chapter devoted to the fundamental concepts in stochastic processes is included. Bayesian inference (estimation, testing hypotheses, and prediction) for discrete time Markov chains, for Markov jump processes, for normal processes (e.g. Brownian motion and the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process), for traditional time series, and, lastly, for point and spatial processes are described in detail. Heavy emphasis is placed on many examples taken from biology and other scientific disciplines. In order analyses of stochastic processes, it will use R and WinBUGS. Features: Uses the Bayesian approach to make statistical Inferences about stochastic processes The R package is used to simulate realizations from different types of processes Based on realizations from stochastic processes, the WinBUGS package will provide the Bayesian analysis (estimation, testing hypotheses, and prediction) for the unknown parameters of stochastic processes To illustrate the Bayesian inference, many examples taken from biology, economics, and astronomy will reinforce the basic concepts of the subject A practical approach is implemented by considering realistic examples of interest to the scientific community WinBUGS and R code are provided in the text, allowing the reader to easily verify the results of the inferential procedures found in the many examples of the book Readers with a good background in two areas, probability theory and statistical inference, should be able to master the essential ideas of this book.
Statistical inference carries great significance in model building from both the theoretical and the applications points of view. Its applications to engineering and economic systems, financial economics, and the biological and medical sciences have made statistical inference for stochastic processes a well-recognized and important branch of statistics and probability. The class of semimartingales includes a large class of stochastic processes, including diffusion type processes, point processes, and diffusion type processes with jumps, widely used for stochastic modeling. Until now, however, researchers have had no single reference that collected the research conducted on the asymptotic theory for semimartingales. Semimartingales and their Statistical Inference, fills this need by presenting a comprehensive discussion of the asymptotic theory of semimartingales at a level needed for researchers working in the area of statistical inference for stochastic processes. The author brings together into one volume the state-of-the-art in the inferential aspect for such processes. The topics discussed include: Asymptotic likelihood theory Quasi-likelihood Likelihood and efficiency Inference for counting processes Inference for semimartingale regression models The author addresses a number of stochastic modeling applications from engineering, economic systems, financial economics, and medical sciences. He also includes some of the new and challenging statistical and probabilistic problems facing today's active researchers working in the area of inference for stochastic processes.
