Maximum likelihood estimation in the proportional hazards cure model

The proportional hazards cure model generalizes Cox’s proportional hazards model which allows that a proportion of study subjects may never experience the event of interest. Here nonparametric maximum likelihood approach is proposed to estimating the cumulative hazard and the regression parameters. The asymptotic properties of the resulting estimators are established using the modern empirical process theory. And the estimators for the regression parameters are shown to be semiparametric efficient.     

Estimation of a smooth quantile function under the proportional hazards model

The problem of estimating a smooth quantile function, Q(·), at a fixed point p, 0 < p < 1, is treated under a nonparametric smoothness condition on Q. The asymptotic relative deficiency of the sample quantile based on the maximum likelihood estimate of the survival function under the proportional hazards model with respect to kernel type estimators of the quantile is evaluated. The comparison is based on the mean square errors of the estimators. It is shown that the relative deficiency tends to infinity as the sample size, n, tends to infinity.     

Density estimation in the simple proportional hazards model

In the simple proportional hazards model of random right censorship the limiting variance v_ACL²(x) at x of the kernel density estimator based on the Abdushukurov-Cheng-Lin estimator is shown to be equal to the corresponding variance pertaining to the Kaplan-Meier estimator times the expected proportion p of uncensored observations. More surprisingly, for appropriate p, v_ACL²(x) is smaller than the asymptotic variance of the classical kernel estimator based on a complete sample, for any x below the (1 − e⁻¹)-quantile.     

Maximum likelihood estimation for a road traffic network model

The use of the maximum likelihood method for parameter estimation in a probabilistic path choice model used for road traffic networks is described. The method requires observation of mean travel costs in a given network rather than the traffic flows throughout the network, and thus data collection efforts may be reduced. A test network, for which many sets of artificial data were generated, is examined so that the usefulness of the parameter estimation procedure may be assessed. It is shown that the procedure is both convenient and quick, and that accurate estimates of model parameters may be obtained.     

A time-dependent proportional hazards survival model for credit risk analysis

In the consumer credit industry, assessment of default risk is critically important for the financial health of both the lender and the borrower. Methods for predicting risk for an applicant using credit bureau and application data, typically based on logistic regression or survival analysis, are universally employed by credit card companies. Because of the manner in which the predictive models are fit using large historical sets of existing customer data that extend over many years, default trends, anomalies, and other temporal phenomena that result from dynamic economic conditions are not brought to light. We introduce a modification of the proportional hazards survival model that includes a time-dependency mechanism for capturing temporal phenomena, and we develop a maximum likelihood algorithm for fitting the model. Using a very large, real data set, we demonstrate that incorporating the time dependency can provide more accurate risk scoring, as well as important insight into dynamic market effects that can inform and enhance related decision making.     

On estimation of survival function under random censoring model

We study an estimator of the survival function under the random censoring model. Bahadur-type representation of the estimator is obtained and asymptotic expression for its mean squared errors is given, which leads to the consistency and asymptotic normality of the estimator. A data-driven local bandwidth selection rule for the estimator is proposed. It is worth noting that the estimator is consistent at left boundary points, which contrasts with the cases of density and hazard rate estimation. A Monte Carlo comparison of different estimators is made and it appears that the proposed data-driven estimators have certain advantages over the common Kaplan-Meier estmator.     

Maximum likelihood estimation of covariance matrices under simple tree ordering

The closed-form maximum likelihood estimators for the completely balanced multivariate one-way random effect model are obtained by Anderson et al. (Ann. Statist. 14 (1986) 405). It remains open whether there exist the closed-form maximum likelihood estimators for the more general completely balanced multivariate multi-way random effects models. In this paper, a new parameterization technique for covariance matrices is used to grasp the inside structure of likelihood function so that the maximum likelihood equations can be dramatically simplified. As such we obtain the closed-form maximum likelihood estimators of covariance matrices for Wishart density functions over the simple tree ordering set, which can then be applied to get the maximum likelihood estimators for the completely balanced multivariate multi-way random effects models without interactions.     

Asymptotic properties of the maximum likelihood estimator for the proportional hazards model with doubly censored data

Doubly censored data, which include left as well as right censored observations, are frequently met in practice. Though estimation of the distribution function with doubly censored data has seen much study, relatively little is known about the inference of regression coefficients in the proportional hazards model for doubly censored data. In particular, theoretical properties of the maximum likelihood estimator of the regression coefficients in the proportional hazards model have not been proved yet. In this paper, we show the consistency and asymptotic normality of the maximum likelihood estimator and prove its semiparametric efficiency. The proposed methods are illustrated with simulation studies and analysis of an application from a medical study.     

Maximum likelihood estimation for a branching diffusion process

This paper investigates the properties of the maximum likelihood estimators of the drift and diffusion coefficients under three sampling schemes for a branching diffusion process in which the branching process is a linear birth process and the diffusion is in accordance with the Brownian motion with drift.     

Maximum likelihood estimation in a partially observed stratified regression model with censored data

The stratified proportional intensity model generalizes Cox’s proportional intensity model by allowing different groups of the population under study to have distinct baseline intensity functions. In this article, we consider the problem of estimation in this model when the variable indicating the stratum is unobserved for some individuals in the studied sample. In this setting, we construct nonparametric maximum likelihood estimators for the parameters of the stratified model and we establish their consistency and asymptotic normality. Consistent estimators for the limiting variances are also obtained.     

Maximum likelihood estimation of a multivariate linear functional relationship

Many authors have discussed maximum likelihood estimation in the simple linear functional relationship model. In this paper, we derive maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) for parameters in a much more general model. Several special cases including the multivariate linear functional relationship model are discussed. Estimators of some of the parameters are shown to be inconsistent.     

Influence diagnostics for the proportional hazards model

Influence diagnostics based on Cook's curvature diagnostic (1986) are developed for the proportional hazards model. Three perturbation schemes are considered: perturbation of the likelihood, perturbation of the censoring information and perturbation of covariate values.     

Maximum likelihood estimation of stable Paretian models

Stable Paretian distributions have attractive properties for empirical modeling in finance, because they include the normal distribution as a special case but can also allow for heavier tails and skewness. A major reason for the limited use of stable distributions in applied work is due to the facts that there are, in general, no closed-form expressions for its probability density function and that numerical approximations are nontrivial and computationally demanding. Therefore, Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimation of stable Paretian models is rather difficult and time consuming. Here, we study the problem of ML estimation using fast Fourier transforms to approximate the stable density functions. The performance of the ML estimation approach is investigated in a Monte Carlo study and compared to that of a widely used quantile estimator. Extensions to more general distributional models characterized by time-varying location and scale are discussed.     

Conditional likelihood estimation and efficiency comparisons in proportional odds model with missing covariates

In this article, a conditional likelihood approach is developed for dealing with ordinal data with missing covariates in proportional odds model. Based on the validation data set, we propose the Breslow and Cain (Biometrika 75:11–20, 1988) type estimators using different estimates of the selection probabilities, which may be treated as nuisance parameters. Under the assumption that the observed covariates and surrogate variables are categorical, we present large sample theory for the proposed estimators and show that they are more efficient than the estimator using the true selection probabilities. Simulation results support the theoretical analysis. We also illustrate the approaches using data from a survey of cable TV satisfaction.     

Maximum likelihood estimation in the multi-path change-point problem

Maximum likelihood estimators of the parameters of the distributions before and after the change and the distribution of the time to change in the multi-path change-point problem are derived and shown to be consistent. The maximization of the likelihood can be carried out by using either the EM algorithm or results from mixture distributions. In fact, these two approaches give equivalent algorithms. Simulations to evaluate the performance of the maximum likelihood estimators under practical conditions, and two examples using data on highway fatalities in the United States, and on the health effects of urea formaldehyde foam insulation, are also provided.This work was supported in part by the Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada, and the Fonds pour la Formation de chercheurs et l'aide à la Recherche Gouvernment du Québec.Lawrence Joseph is also a member of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics of McGill University.     

Estimation in generalized proportional hazards model

Generalization of the proportional hazards model taking into account dependence of the rate of resource using on the value of the used resource is considered. Modified partial likelihood approach for parameters estimation is proposed. The asymptotic properties of estimators are investigated.     

Maximum likelihood estimation for noncausal autoregressive processes

We discuss a maximum likelihood procedure for estimating parameters in possibly noncausal autoregressive processes driven by i.i.d. non-Gaussian noise. Under appropriate conditions, estimates of the parameters that are solutions to the likelihood equations exist and are asymptotically normal. The estimation procedure is illustrated with a simulation study for AR(2) processes.