Nested Models (nested + models)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Identification of Standard Auction Models

ECONOMETRICA, Issue 6 2002
Susan Athey
This paper presents new identification results for models of first,price, second,price, ascending (English), and descending (Dutch) auctions. We consider a general specification of the latent demand and information structure, nesting both private values and common values models, and allowing correlated types as well as ex ante asymmetry. We address identification of a series of nested models and derive testable restrictions enabling discrimination between models on the basis of observed data. The simplest model,symmetric independent private values,is nonparametrically identified even if only the transaction price from each auction is observed. For richer models, identification and testable restrictions may be obtained when additional information of one or more of the following types is available: (i) the identity of the winning bidder or other bidders; (ii) one or more bids in addition to the transaction price; (iii) exogenous variation in the number of bidders; (iv) bidder,specific covariates. While many private values (PV) models are nonparametrically identified and testable with commonly available data, identification of common values (CV) models requires stringent assumptions. Nonetheless, the PV model can be tested against the CV alternative, even when neither model is identified. [source]


Jobs, Houses, and Trees: Changing Regional Structure, Local Land-Use Patterns, and Forest Cover in Southern Indiana

GROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 3 2003
Darla K. Munroe
Land-use and -cover change is a topic of increasing concern as interest in forest and agricultural land preservation grows. Urban and residential land use is quickly replacing extractive land use in southern Indiana. The interaction between land quality and urban growth pressures is also causing secondary forest growth and forest clearing to occur jointly in a complex spatial pattern. It is argued that similar processes fuel the abandonment of agricultural land leading to private forest regrowth, changes in topography and land quality, and declining real farm product prices. However, the impact of urban growth and development on forests depends more strongly on changes in both the residential housing and labor markets. Using location quotient analysis of aggregate employment patterns, and the relationship between regional labor market changes, the extent of private forest cover was examined from 1967 to 1998. Then an econometric model of land-use shares in forty southern Indiana counties was developed based on the net benefits to agriculture, forestland, and urban uses. To test the need to control explicitly for changes in residential demand and regional economic structure, a series of nested models was estimated. Some evidence was found that changing agricultural profitability is leading to private forest regrowth. It was also uncovered that the ratio of urban to forest land uses is better explained by incorporating measures of residential land value and industrial concentration than simply considering population density alone. [source]


LIVING RATIONALLY UNDER THE VOLCANO?

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 1 2007
AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF HEAVY DRINKING AND SMOKING
This study investigates whether models of forward-looking behavior explain the observed patterns of heavy drinking and smoking of men in late middle age in the Health and Retirement Study better than myopic models. We develop and estimate a sequence of nested models that differ by their degree of forward-looking behavior. Our empirical findings suggest that forward looking models fit the data better than myopic models. These models also dominate other behavioral models based on out-of-sample predictions using data of men aged 70 and over. Myopic models predict rates of smoking for old individuals, which are significantly larger than those found in the data on elderly men. [source]


The impact of case specificity and generalisable skills on clinical performance: a correlated traits,correlated methods approach

MEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 6 2008
Paul F Wimmers
Context, The finding of case or content specificity in medical problem solving moved the focus of research away from generalisable skills towards the importance of content knowledge. However, controversy about the content dependency of clinical performance and the generalisability of skills remains. Objectives, This study aimed to explore the relative impact of both perspectives (case specificity and generalisable skills) on different components (history taking, physical examination, communication) of clinical performance within and across cases. Methods, Data from a clinical performance examination (CPX) taken by 350 Year 3 students were used in a correlated traits,correlated methods (CTCM) approach using confirmatory factor analysis, whereby ,traits' refers to generalisable skills and ,methods' to individual cases. The baseline CTCM model was analysed and compared with four nested models using structural equation modelling techniques. The CPX consisted of three skills components and five cases. Results, Comparison of the four different models with the least-restricted baseline CTCM model revealed that a model with uncorrelated generalisable skills factors and correlated case-specific knowledge factors represented the data best. The generalisable processes found in history taking, physical examination and communication were responsible for half the explained variance, in comparison with the variance related to case specificity. Conclusions, Pure knowledge-based and pure skill-based perspectives on clinical performance both seem too one-dimensional and new evidence supports the idea that a substantial amount of variance contributes to both aspects of performance. It could be concluded that generalisable skills and specialised knowledge go hand in hand: both are essential aspects of clinical performance. [source]


A note on penalized minimum distance estimation in nonparametric regression

THE CANADIAN JOURNAL OF STATISTICS, Issue 3 2003
Florentina Bunea
Abstract The authors introduce a penalized minimum distance regression estimator. They show the estimator to balance, among a sequence of nested models of increasing complexity, the L1 -approximation error of each model class and a penalty term which reflects the richness of each model and serves as a upper bound for the estimation error. Les auteurs présentent un nouvel estimateur de régression obtenu par minimisation d'une distance pénalisée. Ils montrent que pour une suite de modèles embo,tés à complexité croissante, cet estimateur offre un bon compromis entre l'erreur d'approximation L1 de chaque classe de modèles et un terme de pénalisation permettant à la fois de refléter la richesse de chaque modèle et de majorer l'erreur d'estimation. [source]


Numerical simulation of meso-gamma scale features of föhn at ground level in the Rhine valley

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Issue 608 2005
G. Jaubert
Abstract This paper examines the impact of a mesoscale analysis (2.5 km grid distance) on the simulation of the meso-gamma scale aspects of föhn in the Rhine Valley. The föhn event, documented during IOP15 (5 November 1999) of the Mesoscale Alpine Programme, was standard in terms of intensity and was characterized by an important temporal variability. Many instruments operating in the Rhine valley target area are used to validate the simulation, in particular the airborne nadir-pointing lidar LEANDRE 2 (flown over the lower Rhine valley) as well as a wind profiler and a radio accoustic sounding system collocated in Rankweil, Austria. The large observational dataset acquired during the IOP allowed documentation of the entire föhn life cycle. For most of the IOP, a cold pool remained near the ground in the lower northern part of the valley. The non-hydrostatic model Meso-NH, used in a grid-nesting configuration with two nested models and initialized with a mesoscale analysis, allowed us to simulate realistically the location and depth of the cold pool. The relationship between the föhn intensity and the large-scale environment is also examined. The flow regime is a ,flow around' the Alps. The variability of this flow at the western tip of the Alps could explain some of the temporal changes observed at low level in the Rhine valley. Copyright © 2005 Royal Meteorological Society [source]


Partly Functional Temporal Process Regression with Semiparametric Profile Estimating Functions

BIOMETRICS, Issue 2 2009
Jun Yan
Summary Marginal mean models of temporal processes in event time data analysis are gaining more attention for their milder assumptions than the traditional intensity models. Recent work on fully functional temporal process regression (TPR) offers great flexibility by allowing all the regression coefficients to be nonparametrically time varying. The existing estimation procedure, however, prevents successive goodness-of-fit test for covariate coefficients in comparing a sequence of nested models. This article proposes a partly functional TPR model in the line of marginal mean models. Some covariate effects are time independent while others are completely unspecified in time. This class of models is very rich, including the fully functional model and the semiparametric model as special cases. To estimate the parameters, we propose semiparametric profile estimating equations, which are solved via an iterative algorithm, starting at a consistent estimate from a fully functional model in the existing work. No smoothing is needed, in contrast to other varying-coefficient methods. The weak convergence of the resultant estimators are developed using the empirical process theory. Successive tests of time-varying effects and backward model selection procedure can then be carried out. The practical usefulness of the methodology is demonstrated through a simulation study and a real example of recurrent exacerbation among cystic fibrosis patients. [source]