Bass relates how two rumpled physicists set up computers in an adobe house in Santa Fe for a start-up company, and follows their journey into the centers of financial power where "the predictors" find investors and finally go live with real money.
This is a book about regression analysis, that is, the situation in statistics where the distribution of a response (or outcome) variable is related to - planatory variables (or covariates). This is an extremely common situation in the application of statistical methods in many ?elds, andlinear regression,- gistic regression, and Cox proportional hazards regression are frequently used for quantitative, binary, and survival time outcome variables, respectively. Several books on these topics have appeared and for that reason one may well ask why we embark on writing still another book on regression. We have two main reasons for doing this: 1. First, we want to highlightsimilaritiesamonglinear,logistic,proportional hazards,andotherregressionmodelsthatincludealinearpredictor. These modelsareoftentreatedentirelyseparatelyintextsinspiteofthefactthat alloperationsonthemodelsdealingwiththelinearpredictorareprecisely the same, including handling of categorical and quantitative covariates, testing for linearity and studying interactions. 2. Second, we want to emphasize that, for any type of outcome variable, multiple regression models are composed of simple building blocks that areaddedtogetherinthelinearpredictor:thatis,t-tests,one-wayanalyses of variance and simple linear regressions for quantitative outcomes, 2×2, 2×(k+1) tables and simple logistic regressions for binary outcomes, and 2-and (k+1)-sample logrank testsand simple Cox regressionsfor survival data. Thishastwoconsequences. Allthesesimpleandwellknownmethods can be considered as special cases of the regression models. On the other hand, the e?ect of a single explanatory variable in a multiple regression model can be interpreted in a way similar to that obtained in the simple analysis, however, now valid only for the other explanatory variables in the model “held ?xed”.
Originally published in 1986, the impetus for this volume developed from a conference organized by Barbara Snell Dohrenwend and the editors on behalf of the Society for Life History Research in Psychopathology, the Society of the Study of Social Biology, and the Center for Studies of Mental Health of Aging at the National Institute of Mental Health. The theme of the conference was life span research on the prediction of psychopathology, and the goal was to bring together outstanding researchers who were engaged in longitudinal investigations at the time and whose work, collectively, covered the entire life-span, from infancy to old age. The papers that were presented at the conference were updated, so that the chapters that follow represented current, state-of-the-art considerations in some of the best ongoing studies concerned with the prediction of psychopathology at that time.
The process of developing predictive models includes many stages. Most resources focus on the modeling algorithms but neglect other critical aspects of the modeling process. This book describes techniques for finding the best representations of predictors for modeling and for nding the best subset of predictors for improving model performance. A variety of example data sets are used to illustrate the techniques along with R programs for reproducing the results.
The second edition of this volume provides insight and practical illustrations on how modern statistical concepts and regression methods can be applied in medical prediction problems, including diagnostic and prognostic outcomes. Many advances have been made in statistical approaches towards outcome prediction, but a sensible strategy is needed for model development, validation, and updating, such that prediction models can better support medical practice. There is an increasing need for personalized evidence-based medicine that uses an individualized approach to medical decision-making. In this Big Data era, there is expanded access to large volumes of routinely collected data and an increased number of applications for prediction models, such as targeted early detection of disease and individualized approaches to diagnostic testing and treatment. Clinical Prediction Models presents a practical checklist that needs to be considered for development of a valid prediction model. Steps include preliminary considerations such as dealing with missing values; coding of predictors; selection of main effects and interactions for a multivariable model; estimation of model parameters with shrinkage methods and incorporation of external data; evaluation of performance and usefulness; internal validation; and presentation formatting. The text also addresses common issues that make prediction models suboptimal, such as small sample sizes, exaggerated claims, and poor generalizability. The text is primarily intended for clinical epidemiologists and biostatisticians. Including many case studies and publicly available R code and data sets, the book is also appropriate as a textbook for a graduate course on predictive modeling in diagnosis and prognosis. While practical in nature, the book also provides a philosophical perspective on data analysis in medicine that goes beyond predictive modeling. Updates to this new and expanded edition include: • A discussion of Big Data and its implications for the design of prediction models • Machine learning issues • More simulations with missing ‘y’ values • Extended discussion on between-cohort heterogeneity • Description of ShinyApp • Updated LASSO illustration • New case studies
Forecasting is required in many situations. Stocking an inventory may require forecasts of demand months in advance. Telecommunication routing requires traffic forecasts a few minutes ahead. Whatever the circumstances or time horizons involved, forecasting is an important aid in effective and efficient planning. This textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to forecasting methods and presents enough information about each method for readers to use them sensibly.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST “The most important book on decision making since Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow.”—Jason Zweig, The Wall Street Journal Everyone would benefit from seeing further into the future, whether buying stocks, crafting policy, launching a new product, or simply planning the week’s meals. Unfortunately, people tend to be terrible forecasters. As Wharton professor Philip Tetlock showed in a landmark 2005 study, even experts’ predictions are only slightly better than chance. However, an important and underreported conclusion of that study was that some experts do have real foresight, and Tetlock has spent the past decade trying to figure out why. What makes some people so good? And can this talent be taught? In Superforecasting, Tetlock and coauthor Dan Gardner offer a masterwork on prediction, drawing on decades of research and the results of a massive, government-funded forecasting tournament. The Good Judgment Project involves tens of thousands of ordinary people—including a Brooklyn filmmaker, a retired pipe installer, and a former ballroom dancer—who set out to forecast global events. Some of the volunteers have turned out to be astonishingly good. They’ve beaten other benchmarks, competitors, and prediction markets. They’ve even beaten the collective judgment of intelligence analysts with access to classified information. They are "superforecasters." In this groundbreaking and accessible book, Tetlock and Gardner show us how we can learn from this elite group. Weaving together stories of forecasting successes (the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound) and failures (the Bay of Pigs) and interviews with a range of high-level decision makers, from David Petraeus to Robert Rubin, they show that good forecasting doesn’t require powerful computers or arcane methods. It involves gathering evidence from a variety of sources, thinking probabilistically, working in teams, keeping score, and being willing to admit error and change course. Superforecasting offers the first demonstrably effective way to improve our ability to predict the future—whether in business, finance, politics, international affairs, or daily life—and is destined to become a modern classic.