人民币实际汇率变化对中国进出口影响的实证分析

人民币汇率的变化直接和间接地对我国的经济产生影响.采用面板数据来实证分析人民币实际汇率变化对中国的11个贸易伙伴的进口值和出口值的影响.     

大学生就业扶持政策的有效性分析及改进:基于DEA方法的实证分析

鉴于数据包络分析(DEA)方法在评价多输入、多输出系统相对有效性方面所具有的优越性,基于DEA方法构建了C2R模型及相应投影分析模型和评价指标体系,对1999-2008年中国所实行的大学生就业扶持政策的有效性进行了评价分析,实证分析结果表明1999-2002年的大学生就业扶持政策在促进和解决大学生就业方面的效果显著,而2003年以后的大学生就业扶持政策在解决大学生就业问题上存在明显的效率损失,且政策效果逐年下降.为了提高大学生就业扶持政策的实施效果,就业扶持政策在未来的改进重点应着力从财政补贴、高等教育经费投入和贷款补助等政策内容入手,并提高政策的执行力度.     

多指标面板数据融合聚类分析

针对多指标面板数据的样品分类和历史时期划分问题,从多元统计分析理论角度提出一个多指标面板数据的融合聚类分析方法。该方法改进了多指标面板数据的因子分析和系统聚类方法,依据Fisher有序聚类理论,构造了Frobenius范数形式的离差平方和函数,提出了多指标面板数据的有序聚类方法。实证结果表明,该方法能够满足系统分析的统一性要求,保证指标之间的不相关;能够克服时间维度上均值处理造成的偏误,信息损失较少;能够解决面板数据有序聚类的问题;弥补了单一分析的片面性和局限性。     

面板数据空间误差分量模型的GMM估计及其应用

本文研究面板数据空间误差分量模型(Spatial Error Components Model,SEC)的估计方法。为克服极大似然法在SEC模型估计中运算的困难,本文提出基于广义矩估计的可行广义最小二乘法(GMM-GLS),证明了估计量的一致性及有限样本下的有效性;并应用此模型,研究2000-2007年中国30个省(西藏除外)的物质资本存量、人力资本存量及能源消耗对实际GDP的影响,结果表明,采用SEC模型所得估计结果更为符合经济现实。     

Functional Additive Mixed Models

We propose an extensive framework for additive regression models for correlated functional responses, allowing for multiple partially nested or crossed functional random effects with flexible correlation structures for, for example, spatial, temporal, or longitudinal functional data. Additionally, our framework includes linear and nonlinear effects of functional and scalar covariates that may vary smoothly over the index of the functional response. It accommodates densely or sparsely observed functional responses and predictors which may be observed with additional error and includes both spline-based and functional principal component-based terms. Estimation and inference in this framework is based on standard additive mixed models, allowing us to take advantage of established methods and robust, flexible algorithms. We provide easy-to-use open source software in the pffr() function for the R package refund. Simulations show that the proposed method recovers relevant effects reliably, handles small sample sizes well, and also scales to larger datasets. Applications with spatially and longitudinally observed functional data demonstrate the flexibility in modeling and interpretability of results of our approach.     

Peeking Inside the Black Box: Visualizing Statistical Learning With Plots of Individual Conditional Expectation

This article presents individual conditional expectation (ICE) plots, a tool for visualizing the model estimated by any supervised learning algorithm. Classical partial dependence plots (PDPs) help visualize the average partial relationship between the predicted response and one or more features. In the presence of substantial interaction effects, the partial response relationship can be heterogeneous. Thus, an average curve, such as the PDP, can obfuscate the complexity of the modeled relationship. Accordingly, ICE plots refine the PDP by graphing the functional relationship between the predicted response and the feature for individual observations. Specifically, ICE plots highlight the variation in the fitted values across the range of a covariate, suggesting where and to what extent heterogeneities might exist. In addition to providing a plotting suite for exploratory analysis, we include a visual test for additive structure in the data-generating model. Through simulated examples and real datasets, we demonstrate how ICE plots can shed light on estimated models in ways PDPs cannot. Procedures outlined are available in the R package ICEbox.     

Pixel-Oriented Visualization Techniques for Exploring Very Large Data Bases

Abstract

An important goal of visualization technology is to support the exploration and analysis of very large amounts of data. This article describes a set of pixel-oriented visualization techniques that use each pixel of the display to visualize one data value and therefore allow the visualization of the largest amount of data possible. Most of the techniques have been specifically designed for visualizing and querying large data bases. The techniques may be divided into query-independent techniques that directly visualize the data (or a certain portion of it) and query-dependent techniques that visualize the data in the context of a specific query. Examples for the class of query-independent techniques are the screen-filling curve and recursive pattern techniques. The screen-filling curve techniques are based on the well-known Morton and Peano–Hilbert curve algorithms, and the recursive pattern technique is based on a generic recursive scheme, which generalizes a wide range of pixel-oriented arrangements for visualizing large data sets. Examples for the class of query-dependent techniques are the snake-spiral and snake-axes techniques, which visualize the distances with respect to a data base query and arrange the most relevant data items in the center of the display. In addition to describing the basic ideas of our techniques, we provide example visualizations generated by the various techniques, which demonstrate the usefulness of our techniques and show some of their advantages and disadvantages.     

Directional Spectra-Based Clustering for Visualizing Patterns of Ocean Waves and Winds

The energy distribution of wind-driven ocean waves is of great interest in marine science. Discovering the generating process of ocean waves is often challenging and the direction is the key for a better understanding. Typically, wave records are transformed into a directional spectrum which provides information about the wave energy distribution across different frequencies and directions. Here, we propose a new time series clustering method for a series of directional spectra to extract the spectral features of ocean waves and develop informative visualization tools to summarize identified wave clusters. We treat directional distributions as functional data of directions and construct a directional functional boxplot to display the main directional distribution of the wave energy within a cluster. We also trace back when these spectra were observed, and we present color-coded clusters on a calendar plot to show their temporal variability. For each identified wave cluster, we analyze wind speed and wind direction hourly to investigate the link between wind data and wave directional spectra. The performance of the proposed clustering method is evaluated by simulations and illustrated by a real-world dataset from the Red Sea. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

Hazard Rate Regression Using Ordinary Nonparametric Regression Smoothers

Abstract

This article proposes a method for nonparametric estimation of hazard rates as a function of time and possibly multiple covariates. The method is based on dividing the time axis into intervals, and calculating number of event and follow-up time contributions from the different intervals. The number of event and follow-up time data are then separately smoothed on time and the covariates, and the hazard rate estimators obtained by taking the ratio. Pointwise consistency and asymptotic normality are shown for the hazard rate estimators for a certain class of smoothers, which includes some standard approaches to locally weighted regression and kernel regression. It is shown through simulation that a variance estimator based on this asymptotic distribution is reasonably reliable in practice. The problem of how to select the smoothing parameter is considered, but a satisfactory resolution to this problem has not been identified. The method is illustrated using data from several breast cancer clinical trials.     

A Modified Random Survival Forests Algorithm for High Dimensional Predictors and Self-Reported Outcomes

We present an ensemble tree-based algorithm for variable selection in high-dimensional datasets, in settings where a time-to-event outcome is observed with error. This work is motivated by self-reported outcomes collected in large-scale epidemiologic studies, such as the Women’s Health Initiative. The proposed methods equally apply to imperfect outcomes that arise in other settings such as data extracted from electronic medical records. To evaluate the performance of our proposed algorithm, we present results from simulation studies, considering both continuous and categorical covariates. We illustrate this approach to discover single nucleotide polymorphisms that are associated with incident Type 2 diabetes in the Women’s Health Initiative. A freely available R package icRSF has been developed to implement the proposed methods. Supplementary material for this article is available online.