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Section 8.1: Binary response variables

Section 8.1.1: Probit model

Figure 8.1: Latent utility and outcome in the probit model

We start by visualising a latent utility for a linear predictor 𝐱𝛃\mathbf{x}\boldsymbol{\beta} with a value of 1.

curve(dnorm(x, mean = 1), from = -3, to = 5, col = "blue", 
      xlab = expression(z[i]), ylab = "")
abline(v = 0, col = "red")
 
dens <- curve(dnorm(x, mean = 1), from = -3, to = 5, n = 161, col = "blue",
              xlab = expression(paste(z[i], "|", y[i], "=0")), ylab = "")
abline(v = 0, col = "red")
polygon(c(dens$x[dens$x <= 0], 0), c(dens$y[dens$x <= 0], 0),
        col = "red", border = NA)

dens <- curve(dnorm(x, mean = 1), from = -3, to = 5, n = 161, col = "blue",
             xlab = expression(paste(z[i], "|", y[i], "=1")), ylab = "" )
abline(v = 0, col = "red")
polygon(c(dens$x[dens$x >= 0], 0), c(dens$y[dens$x >= 0], 0),
        col = "red", border = NA)

Example 8.1: Labor market data

We now perform probit regression analysis for the labor market data.

library("BayesianLearningCode")
data("labor", package = "BayesianLearningCode")

We model the income in 1998, binarized into unemployed (zero income) and employed as dependent variable, and use as covariates the variables female (binary), age18 (quantitative, centered at 18 years), wcollar (binary), and unemployed in 1997 (binary). The baseline person is hence an 18 year old male blue collar worker who was employed in 1997.

y.unemp <- labor$income_1998 == "zero"
N.unemp <- length(y.unemp)  # number of observations 
X.unemp <- with(labor, cbind(intercept = rep(1, N.unemp),
                             female = female,
                             age18 = 1998 - birthyear - 18,
                             wcollar = wcollar_1997,
                             unemp97 = income_1997 == "zero")) # regressor matrix

Example 8.2: Fitting a probit model to the labour market data

The regression coefficients are estimated using data augmentation and Gibbs sampling. We define a function yielding posterior draws using the algorithm detailed in Section 8.1.1.

probit <- function(y, X, b0 = 0, B0 = 10000,
                   burnin = 1000L, M = 20000L) {
  N <- length(y)
  d <- ncol(X) # number of regression effects 

  B0.inv <- diag(rep(1 / B0, length.out = d), nrow = d) 
  b0 <- rep(b0, length.out = d) 
  B0inv.b0 <- B0.inv %*% b0

  betas <- matrix(NA_real_, nrow = M, ncol = d)
  colnames(betas) <- colnames(X)
  
  z <- rep(NA_real_, N)

  # Define quantities for the Gibbs sampler
  BN <- solve(B0.inv + crossprod(X))
  ind0 <- (y == 0) # indicators for zeros
  ind1 <- (y == 1) # indicators for ones

  # Set starting values
  beta <- c(qnorm(mean(y)), rep(0, d-1))

  for (m in seq_len(burnin + M)) {
    # Draw z conditional on y and beta
    u <- runif(N)
    eta <- X %*% beta
    pi <- pnorm(eta) 
   
    z[ind0] <- eta[ind0] + qnorm(u[ind0] * (1 - pi[ind0]))
    z[ind1] <- eta[ind1] + qnorm(1 - u[ind1] * pi[ind1])
  
    # Sample beta from the full conditional 
    bN <- BN %*% (B0inv.b0 + crossprod(X, z))
    beta <- t(mvtnorm::rmvnorm(1, mean = bN, sigma = BN))
    
    # Store the beta draws
    if (m > burnin) {
      betas[m - burnin, ] <- beta
    }
 }
 return(betas)
}

We specify the prior on the regression effects as a rather flat normal independence prior and estimate the model parameters.

set.seed(1234)
M <- 20000
betas <- probit(y.unemp, X.unemp, b0 = 0, B0 = 1000L, burnin = 1000, M = M)

To compute summary statistics from the posterior we use the following function.

res.mcmc <- function(x, lower = 0.025, upper = 0.975) {
  res <- c(quantile(x, lower), mean(x), quantile(x, upper))
  names(res) <- c(paste0(lower * 100, "%"), "Posterior mean", 
                  paste0(upper * 100, "%"))
  res
}

We show posterior means and equal-tailed 95% credible intervals of the regression effects.

res_probit.labour <- t(apply(betas, 2, res.mcmc))
knitr::kable(round(res_probit.labour, 3))
2.5% Posterior mean 97.5%
intercept -2.123 -1.975 -1.831
female 0.106 0.215 0.325
age18 0.023 0.027 0.032
wcollar -0.293 -0.183 -0.074
unemp97 2.412 2.523 2.637

Next, we determine the estimated risk of unemployment for a baseline person, i.e., a 18 year old male blue collar worker who was employed in 1997, using the posterior mean estimate of the intercept.

(p_unemploy_base_probit <- round(pnorm(res_probit.labour[1, 2]), 4))
#> [1] 0.0241

The estimated risk to be unemployed in 1998 for a baseline person is very low with a value of 0.0241 and even lower for a white collar worker. This risk is higher for a female, an older person and particularly high if the person was unemployed in 1997.

Next, we visualize the estimated posterior distributions for the regression effects by histograms.

for (j in seq_len(ncol(betas))) {
  hist(betas[, j], freq = FALSE, main = "", xlab = colnames(betas)[j], 
       ylab = "")
}

A plot of the autocorrelation of the draws shows that although there is some autocorrelation, it vanishes after a few lags.

for (j in seq_len(ncol(betas))) {
    acf(betas[, j], main = "", xlab = "Lag",
        ylab = "empirical ACF")
    title(colnames(betas)[j])
}

We also determine the estimated effective sample sizes (ESSs) to assess the efficiency of the sampler.

library("coda")
ess <- round(coda::effectiveSize(betas), 1)
ineff <- round(M/ess, 2)

res_eff <- cbind(ess, ineff)
knitr::kable(res_eff)
ess ineff
intercept 2861.8 6.99
female 3726.1 5.37
age18 2759.0 7.25
wcollar 3558.7 5.62
unemp97 3615.4 5.53

The effective sample size is at least 2759 for every regression effect, and hence all inefficiency factors are below 7.25.

The sampler is easy to implement, however there might be problems when the response variable contains either only very few or very many successes.

Example 8.3: Imbalanced data

To illustrate this issue, we use data where in N=500N = 500 trials only 1 failure or only 1 success is observed.

set.seed(1234)

N <- 500
X <- matrix(1, nrow = N)

y1 <- c(0, rep(1, N-1))
betas1 <- probit(y1, X, b0 = 0, B0 = 10000, burnin = 1000, M = M)

y2 <- c(rep(0, N-1), 1)
betas2 <- probit(y2, X, b0 = 0, B0 = 10000, burnin = 1000, M = M)

In both cases the empirical autocorrelation of the draws decreases very slowly and remains high even for a lag of 40.

labels <- expression(beta[0])

plot(betas1, type = "l", main = "N=500, 1 failure", xlab = "Draws after burnin",
     ylab = labels)
acf(betas1, ylab = "empirical ACF")

(ess1 <- coda::effectiveSize(betas1))
#>     var1 
#> 165.9583
round(M/ess1, 2)
#>   var1 
#> 120.51

plot(betas2, type = "l", main = "N=500, 1 success", xlab = "Draws after burnin",
     ylab = labels)
acf(betas2, ylab = "empirical ACF")


(ess2 <- coda::effectiveSize(betas2))
#>     var1 
#> 150.8803
round(M/ess2, 2)
#>   var1 
#> 132.56

Hence for these data sets the estimated ESS of the intercept has a value of ~ 150, yielding an inefficiency factor of ~ 130.

High autocorrelation in MCMC draws for probit models occur not only when either successes or failures are rare, but also when a covariate (or a linear combination of covariates) perfectly allows to predict successes and/or failures. Complete separation means that both successes and failures can be perfectly predicted by a covariate, whereas quasi-complete separation means that either successes or failures can be predicted perfectly.

Example 8.4: Complete Seperation

To illustrate the effect of complete separation on the estimates, we generate N=500N = 500 observations where half of them are successes and the other half are failures. We add a binary predictor xx where for x=1x = 1 we observe only successes and for x=0x = 0 only failures.

N <- 500
ns <- 250
x.sep <- rep(c(0, 1), c(ns, N - ns))
y <- rep(c(0, 1), c(ns, N - ns))

table(x.sep, y)
#>      y
#> x.sep   0   1
#>     0 250   0
#>     1   0 250

We estimate the model parameters 𝛃=(β0,β1)\boldsymbol{\beta}= (\beta_0, \beta_1)' under the Normal prior with mean 𝟎\mathbf{0} and variance matrix 10000𝐈10000\mathbf{I} and run the sampler for M=20000M=20000 iterations after a burnin of 1000.

From the plot of the ACF of the draws we see that autocorrelations are close to 1 even at lag 40.


set.seed(1234)
X.sep <- cbind(rep(1, N), x.sep)
betas.sep <- probit(y, X.sep, b0 = 0, B0 = 10000, burnin = 1000, M = M)

labels <- expression(beta[0], beta[1])
plot(betas.sep[, 1], type = "l", xlab = "Draws after burnin", ylab = labels[1])
acf(betas.sep[, 1], ylab = "empirical ACF")

plot(betas.sep[, 2], type = "l", xlab = "Draws after burnin", ylab = labels[2])
acf(betas.sep[, 2], ylab = "empirical ACF")


(ess.sep <- round(coda::effectiveSize(betas.sep), 2))
#>       x.sep 
#>  8.38  8.27
round(M/ess.sep, 2)
#>           x.sep 
#> 2386.63 2418.38

Hence the ESSs are very low with a value of ~ 8, resulting in inefficiency factors of ~2400.

Example 8.5: Quasi-complete seperation

To illustrate quasi-separation we use the same responses as in Example 8.4, but now set x=1x=1 for all successes and additionally for 100 failures. Hence for x=0x=0 always a failure is observed, whereas for x=1x=1 both successes and failures occur.

x.qus1 <- rep(c(0, 1), c(ns-100, N - ns+100))
table(x.qus1, y)
#>       y
#> x.qus1   0   1
#>      0 150   0
#>      1 100 250

We again estimate the regression effects using data augmentation and Gibbs Sampling.


set.seed(1234)
X.qus1 <- cbind(rep(1, N), x.qus1)
betas.qus1 <- probit(y, X.qus1, b0 = 0, B0 = 10000, burnin = 1000, M = M)

plot(betas.qus1[, 1], type = "l", xlab = "Draws after burnin", ylab = labels[1])
acf(betas.qus1[, 1], ylab = "empirical ACF")

plot(betas.qus1[, 2], type = "l", xlab = "Draws after burnin", ylab = labels[2])
acf(betas.qus1[, 2], ylab = "empirical ACF")


(ess.qus1 <- round(coda::effectiveSize(betas.qus1), 2))
#>        x.qus1 
#>   8.53   8.68
round(M/ess.qus1, 2)
#>          x.qus1 
#> 2344.67 2304.15

Again autocorrelations are very high for both the intercept as well as the covariate effect resulting in high inefficiency factors of ~ 2340.

We now change the setting so that xx takes values of 00 not only for failures but also for some successes, whereas x=1x=1 for all successes.

x.qus2 <- rep(c(0, 1), c(ns+100, N - ns-100))
table(x.qus2, y)
#>       y
#> x.qus2   0   1
#>      0 250 100
#>      1   0 150

set.seed(1234)
X.qus2 <- cbind(rep(1, N), x.qus2)
betas.qus2 <- probit(y, X.qus2, b0 = 0, B0 = 10000, burnin = 1000, M = M)

par(mfrow = c(2, 2), mar = c(2.5, 2.5, 1.5, .1), mgp = c(1.5, .5, 0), lwd = 1.5)
plot(betas.qus2[, 1], type = "l", xlab = "Draws after burnin", ylab = labels[1])
acf(betas.qus2[, 1], ylab = "empirical ACF")

plot(betas.qus2[, 2], type = "l", xlab = "Draws after burnin", ylab = labels[2])
acf(betas.qus2[, 2], ylab = "empirical ACF")


(ess.qus2 <- round(coda::effectiveSize(betas.qus2), 2))
#>          x.qus2 
#> 7748.60    6.28
(ineff.qus2 <- round(M/ess.qus2, 2))
#>          x.qus2 
#>    2.58 3184.71

Autocorrelations of the intercept are low and close to zero for small lags but remain very high even at lag 40 for the covariate effect. Hence we have a high ESS for the intercept (7748.6) and a low for the covariate effect (6.28), resulting in an inefficiency factor of 2.58 for the intercept, but of 3184.71 for the effect of the covariate.

High autocorrelations typically indicate problems with the sampler. If there is complete or quasi-complete separation in the data, the likelihood is monotone and the maximum likelihood estimate does not exist. In a Bayesian approach using a flat, improper prior on the regression effects will result in an improper posterior distribution. Hence, a proper prior is required to avoid improper posteriors in case of separation and with a tighter prior we can shrink coefficients to zero.

Example 8.6: Complete seperation: analysis under an informative prior

We now analyze the data of example 8.4. under the more informative prior 𝒩(𝟎,𝐈)\mathcal{N}(\mathbf{0}, \mathbf{I}). This prior distribution encodes the prior believe that β0\beta_0 and β1\beta_1 are in the interval (1.96,1.96)(-1.96, 1.96)$ with probability $0.95. We compare the estimation results to those from example 8.4, where the prior variance was larger by a factor of 10000.

set.seed(1234)
betas.sep1 <- probit(y, X.sep, b0 = 0, B0 = 1, burnin = 1000, M = M)

# compare results to the less informative prior
res_betas.sep <- t(apply(betas.sep, 2, res.mcmc))
rownames(res_betas.sep) <- c("Intercept", "X")

ess.sep <- coda::effectiveSize(betas.sep)
ineff.sep <- M/ess.sep
res.sep <- round(cbind(res_betas.sep, ess.sep, ineff.sep), 2)
colnames(res.sep)[4:5] <- c("ESS", "Inefficiency")

knitr:: kable(res.sep)
2.5% Posterior mean 97.5% ESS Inefficiency
Intercept -13.35 -6.71 -3.08 8.38 2387.91
X 7.49 13.64 20.02 8.27 2418.41

res_betas.sep1 <- t(apply(betas.sep1, 2, res.mcmc))
rownames(res_betas.sep1) <- c("Intercept", "X")

ess.sep1 <- coda::effectiveSize(betas.sep1)
ineff.sep1 <-  M/ess.sep1
res.sep1 <- round(cbind(res_betas.sep1, ess.sep1, ineff.sep1), 2)
colnames(res.sep1)[4:5] <- c("ESS", "Inefficiency")

knitr:: kable(res.sep1)
2.5% Posterior mean 97.5% ESS Inefficiency
Intercept -2.85 -2.35 -1.92 707.91 28.25
X 4.21 4.88 5.62 604.79 33.07

We see that the tighter prior shrinks the estimates to zero, estimated ESSs are higher and inefficiency factors are lower.


plot(betas.sep1[, 1], type = "l", xlab = "Draws after burnin", ylab = labels[1])
acf(betas.sep1[, 1], ylab = "empirical ACF")

plot(betas.sep1[, 2], type = "l", xlab = "Draws after burnin", ylab = labels[2])
acf(betas.sep1[, 2], ylab = "empirical ACF")

Correspondingly the autocorrelation of the draws are much lower under the tighter prior.

Section 8.1.2: Logit model

Example 8.7: Labor market data

We now estimate a logistic regression model for the labor market data using the two-block Polya-Gamma sampler.

logit <- function(y, X, b0 = 0, B0 = 10000,
                  burnin = 1000L, M = 5000L) {
  
  N <- length(y)
  d <- ncol(X) # number regression effects 

  B0.inv <- diag(rep(1 / B0, length.out = d), nrow = d) 
  b0 <- rep(b0, length.out = d) 
  B0inv.b0 <- B0.inv %*% b0

  betas <- matrix(NA_real_, nrow = M, ncol = d)
  colnames(betas) <- colnames(X)

  # Define quantities for the Gibbs sampler
  ind0 <- (y == 0) # indicators for zeros
  ind1 <- (y == 1) # indicators for ones
  
  # Set starting values
  beta <- rep(0, d)
  z <- rep(NA_real_, N)
  omega <-rep(NA_real_, N)

  for (m in seq_len(burnin + M)) {
    # Draw z conditional on y and beta
    eta <- X %*% beta
    pi <- plogis(eta) 
      
    u <- runif(N)
    z[ind0] <- eta[ind0] + qlogis(u[ind0] * (1 - pi[ind0]))
    z[ind1] <- eta[ind1] + qlogis (1 - u[ind1] * pi[ind1])
      
    # Draw omega conditional on y, beta and z
    omega <- pgdraw::pgdraw(b = 1, c = z - eta)
  
    # Sample beta from the full conditional 
    Xomega <- matrix(omega, ncol = d, nrow = N) * X
    BN <- solve(B0.inv + crossprod(Xomega, X))
    bN <- BN %*% (B0inv.b0 + crossprod(Xomega, z))
    beta <- t(mvtnorm::rmvnorm(1, mean = bN, sigma = BN))
    
    # Store the beta draws
    if (m > burnin) {
      betas[m - burnin, ] <- beta
    }
 }
 return(betas)
}

We again use the Normaö prior with mean $\mathbf{\zerov}$ and covariance matrix 10000𝐈10000 \mathbf{I} on the regression effects and estimate the model. We summarize the posterior effect estimates and determine the risk of unemployment for a baseline person using the fitted logit model.

set.seed(1234)
betas_logit <- logit(y.unemp, X.unemp, b0 = 0, B0 = 10000)

res_logit.labour <- t(apply(betas_logit, 2, res.mcmc))
knitr::kable(round(res_logit.labour, 3))
2.5% Posterior mean 97.5%
intercept -4.074 -3.674 -3.302
female 0.139 0.409 0.670
age18 0.044 0.056 0.068
wcollar -0.603 -0.342 -0.078
unemp97 4.103 4.382 4.663

(p_unemploy_base_logit <- round(plogis(res_logit.labour[1, 2]), 4))
#> [1] 0.0247

The risk of being unemployed 1998 for a male blue collar worker of age 18, who was employed 1997 is very low with a value of 0.0247 and the risk is even lower for a white collar worker. It is higher for females, increases with age and is particularly high for persons who were unemployed 1997.

While the signs of the covariate effects can be interpreted in the same way for the probit and the logit model, their numerical value will differ due to the different scale of the link function.

As the logistic distribution has a variance of π2/3\pi^2/3 compared to 1 for the standard Normal distribution, the regression effects in the logit model are absolutely larger than those in the probit model. However any probability computed from the two models will be very close, e.g., the estimated probability to be unemployed for a baseline person is 0.0241 in the probit model (compared to 0.0247 in the logit model).

By multiplying the estimated coefficients in the probit model by π/3\pi/\sqrt{3} we can compare them to the estimates of the logit model and we see that there is not much difference.

knitr::kable(round(res_probit.labour * pi / sqrt(3), 3))
2.5% Posterior mean 97.5%
intercept -3.850 -3.583 -3.321
female 0.191 0.389 0.589
age18 0.042 0.050 0.058
wcollar -0.531 -0.331 -0.134
unemp97 4.375 4.577 4.783

Section 8.2: Count response variables

Section 8.2.1: Poisson regression models

Example 8.8: Road safety data

We fit two different Poisson regression models to the series of monthly death and seriously injured children aged 6-10 in Linz introduced in Example 2.1:

  1. a small model with intercept, intervention effect and holiday dummy (activated in July/August);

  2. a larger model with intercept, intervention effect, and a seasonal dummy variables for all months except december

The sampling performance for these two models is assessed to study how the acceptance rate deteriorates, when the dimension of regression effects dd increases.

We load the data and extract the observations for children in Linz.

data("accidents", package = "BayesianLearningCode")
y <- accidents[, "children_accidents"]
e <- accidents[, "children_exposure"]

Then we define the regressor matrix.

X <- cbind(intercept = rep(1, length(y)),
           intervention = rep(c(0, 1), c(7 * 12 + 9, 8 * 12 + 3)),
           holiday = rep(rep(c(0, 1, 0), c(6, 2, 4)), 16))

To compute the parameters of the normal proposal density, we use the Newton-Raphson estimator described in Section 8.2.1.

gen.proposal.poisson <- function(y, X, e, b0 = 0, B0 = 100, t.max = 20){
  N <- length(y)
  d <- ncol(X)
  betas <- matrix(NA_real_, ncol = t.max, nrow = d)
  beta.new <- matrix(c(log(mean(y)), rep(0, d - 1)), nrow=d) 
  
  b0 <- matrix(rep(b0, length.out = d), nrow=d) 
  B0.inv <-diag(rep(1 / B0, length.out = d), nrow = d) 

  for (t in seq_len(t.max)) {
    beta.old <- beta.new
    
    rate <- e * exp(X %*% beta.old)
    score <- t(crossprod(y - rate, X) - t(beta.old - b0) %*% B0.inv)

    H <- -B0.inv
    for (i in seq_len(N)) {
      H <- H - rate[i] * tcrossprod(X[i, ])
    }
    beta.new <- beta.old - solve(H, score)
  }
  qmean <- beta.new
  
  # Determine the variance matrix  
  rate <- e * exp(X %*% qmean)
  H <- -B0.inv
  for (i in seq_len(N)) {
     H <- H - rate[i] * tcrossprod(X[i, ])
  }
  qvar <- -solve(H)
  return(parms.proposal = list(mean = qmean,
                               var = qvar))
}

We use a rather flat normal independence prior 𝒩(𝟎,100𝐈)\mathcal{N}(\mathbf{0}, 100 \mathbf{I}) on the regression effects. First we determine the parameters of the proposal distribution.

parms.proposal <- gen.proposal.poisson(y, X, e, b0 = 0, B0 = 100)
parms.proposal
#> $mean
#>            rate
#> [1,] -8.2140876
#> [2,] -0.3608576
#> [3,] -0.7739759
#> 
#> $var
#>              [,1]          [,2]          [,3]
#> [1,]  0.005251979 -0.0049915918 -0.0031889269
#> [2,] -0.004991592  0.0115517153  0.0002195915
#> [3,] -0.003188927  0.0002195915  0.0364108173

Next we set up the independence Metropolis-Hastings algorithm to estimate the model parameters.

poisson <- function(y, X, e, b0 = 0, B0 = 100, qmean, qvar,
                    burnin = 1000L, M = 10000L) {
  d <- ncol(X)
  beta.post <- matrix(ncol = d, nrow = M)
  colnames(beta.post) <- colnames(X)
  
  acc <- numeric(length = M)
  b0 <- rep(b0, length.out = d)
  B0 <- diag(rep(B0, length.out = d), nrow = d)
  
  beta <- as.vector(mvtnorm::rmvnorm(1, mean = qmean, sigma = qvar))
  
  for (m in seq_len(burnin + M)) {
    beta.old <- beta
    beta.proposed <- as.vector(mvtnorm::rmvnorm(1, mean = qmean, sigma = qvar))
    
    # Compute log proposal density at proposed and old value
    lq_proposed <- mvtnorm::dmvnorm(beta.proposed, mean = qmean, sigma = qvar,
                                    log = TRUE)
    lq_old  <- mvtnorm::dmvnorm(beta.old, mean = qmean, sigma = qvar,
                                log = TRUE)
    
    # Compute log prior of proposed and old value
    lpri_proposed <- mvtnorm::dmvnorm(beta.proposed, mean = b0, sigma = B0,
                                      log = TRUE)
    lpri_old  <- mvtnorm::dmvnorm(beta.old, mean = b0, sigma = B0,
                                  log = TRUE)
    
    # Compute log-likelihood of proposed and old value
    lh_proposed <- dpois(y, e * exp(X %*% beta.proposed), log = TRUE)
    lh_old  <- dpois(y, e * exp(X %*% beta.old), log = TRUE)
    
    maxlik <- max(lh_old, lh_proposed)
    ll <- sum(lh_proposed - maxlik) - sum(lh_old - maxlik)
    
    # Compute acceptance probability and accept or not
    log_acc <- min(0, ll + lpri_proposed - lpri_old + lq_old - lq_proposed)
    
    if (log(runif(1)) < log_acc) {
      beta <- beta.proposed
      accept <- 1
    } else {
      beta <- beta.old
      accept <- 0
    }

    # Store the beta draws
    if (m > burnin) {
        beta.post[m-burnin, ] <- beta
        acc[m-burnin] <- accept
    }
  }
  return(res = list(beta.post = beta.post, accept = mean(acc)))
}

We perform MCMC and report the results.

set.seed(1234)
res1 <- poisson(y, X, e, b0 = 0, B0 = 100,
                qmean = parms.proposal$mean, qvar = parms.proposal$var)

res.poisson1 <- cbind(t(round(apply(res1$beta.post, 2, res.mcmc),3)),
                      "exp(beta)"= round(exp(colMeans(res1$beta.post)),5))
                       
knitr::kable(res.poisson1)
2.5% Posterior mean 97.5% exp(beta)
intercept -8.363 -8.217 -8.077 0.00027
intervention -0.572 -0.361 -0.145 0.69725
holiday -1.185 -0.794 -0.432 0.45195

We see that the risk for a child to be killed or seriously injured is lower during holiday months as well as after the intervention.

(base_risk=res.poisson1[1, "exp(beta)"]*10^4 )
#> [1] 2.7

res1$accept
#> [1] 0.9349

The baseline risk is 2.7 per 10000 children months and it is reduced to less than half during holiday months. After the intervention the risk of being killed or seriously injured of a child in Linz is reduced to 70% of the baseline risk.

We next fit an alternative model with intercept, intervention effect, and seasonal dummy variables for all months except December. Hence the intercept models the risk in December before the intervention.

seas <- rbind(diag(1, 11), rep(0, 11)) 
seas.dummies <- matrix(rep(t(seas), 16), ncol = 11, byrow = TRUE)
colnames(seas.dummies) <- c("Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul",
                            "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov")
X.large <- cbind(X[,-3],
                 seas.dummies)

We set the prior parameters and compute parameters of the proposal distribution.

parms.proposal2 <- gen.proposal.poisson(y, X.large, e, b0 = 0, B0 = 100)

Next we fit the model.

set.seed(1234)
res2 <- poisson(y, X.large, e, b0 = 0, B0 = 100,
                qmean = parms.proposal2$mean, qvar = parms.proposal2$var)

res.poisson2 <- cbind(t(round(apply(res2$beta.post, 2, res.mcmc),3)),
                      "exp(beta)"= round(exp(colMeans(res2$beta.post)),5))
knitr::kable(res.poisson2)
2.5% Posterior mean 97.5% exp(beta)
intercept -8.550 -8.184 -7.842 0.00028
intervention -0.579 -0.371 -0.160 0.69008
Jan -0.397 0.088 0.552 1.09242
Feb -1.100 -0.536 0.014 0.58523
Mar -0.596 -0.090 0.410 0.91427
Apr -0.329 0.141 0.620 1.15126
May -0.993 -0.436 0.102 0.64630
Jun -0.232 0.217 0.678 1.24237
Jul -1.368 -0.762 -0.179 0.46667
Aug -1.549 -0.908 -0.289 0.40320
Sep -0.712 -0.193 0.316 0.82408
Oct -0.204 0.239 0.705 1.27020
Nov -0.643 -0.136 0.368 0.87274

(base_risk=res.poisson2[1, "exp(beta)"]*10^4 )
#> [1] 2.8

With 2.8 dead or seriously injured children per 10 000 at risk, the estimated baseline risk is very similar to that from model 1. Also the estimated intervention effect is very similar in both models, indicating a reduction of the risk by a factor of 0.69 in model 2 (compared to 0.70 in model 1). The monthly effects have rather wide 95% HPD intervals that cover 0 for all months except for July and August. For these two holiday months they are clearly negative, indicating a reduction of the risk.

res2$accept
#> [1] 0.7655

The acceptance rate is 0.93 for the smaller model 1 with three parameters, but only 0.77 for model 2, where 13 parameters have to be estimated.

Section 8.2.2: Negative binomial regression

Example 8.9: Road safety data

Now we re-analyze the road safety data allowing for unobserved heterogeneity. We first set up the two versions of the three-block MH-within-Gibbs sampler.

Note that the negative binomial distribution in R is specified as p(y|α,p)=(α1+yα1)pα(1p)yp(y|\alpha, p)={\alpha-1+y \choose \alpha-1} p^\alpha (1-p)^y or alternatively by the parameters α\alpha and its expected value μ=α(1p)/p.\mu=\alpha (1-p)/p. The expected value of p(y|α,β)p(y|\alpha, \beta) is given as μ=α11+α/eexp(𝐱𝛃)α/eexp(𝐱𝛃)1+α/eexp(𝐱𝛃)=eexp(𝐱𝛃),\mu=\alpha \frac{\frac{1}{1+\alpha/e \exp(- \mathbf{x}\boldsymbol{\beta})}} {\frac{\alpha/e \exp(- \mathbf{x}\boldsymbol{\beta})}{1+\alpha/e \exp(- \mathbf{x}\boldsymbol{\beta})}} = e \exp( \mathbf{x}\boldsymbol{\beta}), and we will use α\alpha and μ\mu to specify the negative binomial distribution.

Extra Functions for the sampling steps ?ß

negbin <- function(y, X, e, b0 = 0, B0 = 100, qmean, qvar, pri.alpha,
                   full.gibbs = FALSE, burnin = 1000L, M = 50000L) {
  
  N <- length(y)
  d <- ncol(X)
  beta.post <- matrix(ncol = d, nrow = M)
  colnames(beta.post) <- colnames(X)
  
  b0 <- rep(b0, length.out = d)
  B0 <- diag(rep(B0, length.out = d), nrow = d)
  
  acc.beta <- numeric(length = M)
  
  alpha.post <- rep(NA_real_, M)
  acc.alpha <- rep(NA_real_, M)
  c_alpha <- 0.1
  
  # Set starting values
  beta <- as.vector(mvtnorm::rmvnorm(1, mean = qmean, sigma = qvar))
  alpha <- pri.alpha$shape/pri.alpha$rate
  phi <- rep(1, N)
  
  for (m in seq_len(burnin + M)){
     # Step (a): Draw beta  
     beta.old <- beta
     beta.proposed <- as.vector(mvtnorm::rmvnorm(1, mean = qmean, sigma = qvar))

     # Compute log proposal density at proposed and old value
     lq_proposed <- mvtnorm::dmvnorm(beta.proposed, mean = qmean, sigma = qvar, 
                                     log = TRUE)
     lq_old  <- mvtnorm::dmvnorm(beta.old, mean = qmean, sigma = qvar,
                                 log = TRUE)
            
     # Compute log prior  of proposed and old value
     lpri_proposed <- mvtnorm::dmvnorm(beta.proposed, mean = b0, sigma = B0, 
                                       log = TRUE)
     lpri_old  <- mvtnorm::dmvnorm(beta.old,  mean = b0, sigma = B0, log = TRUE)

     # Compute log likelihood of proposed and old value
     lh_proposed <- dpois(y, e * exp(X %*% beta.proposed), log = TRUE)
     lh_old  <- dpois(y, e * exp(X %*% beta.old), log = TRUE)
    
     maxlik <- max(lh_old, lh_proposed)
     ll <- sum(lh_proposed - maxlik) - sum(lh_old - maxlik)
    
     # Compute acceptance probability and accept or not
     log_acc <- min(0, ll + lpri_proposed - lpri_old + lq_old - lq_proposed)

     if (log(runif(1)) < log_acc) {
        beta <- beta.proposed
        acc.b <- 1
     }else{
        beta <- beta.old
        acc.b <- 0
     }
     linpred <- X %*% beta

     # Step (b): Draw alpha
     alpha.old <- alpha
     alpha.proposed <- alpha.old * exp(c_alpha * rnorm(1))
     
     if (full.gibbs) {
        llik_alpha.proposed <- sum(dgamma(phi, shape = alpha.proposed,
                                          rate = alpha.proposed, log = TRUE))
        llik_alpha.old      <- sum(dgamma(phi, shape = alpha.old,
                                          rate = alpha.old, log = TRUE)) 
     } else {
       llik_alpha.proposed <- sum(dnbinom(y, size = alpha.proposed, 
                                          mu = e * exp(linpred), log = TRUE))
       llik_alpha.old      <- sum(dnbinom(y, size = alpha.old, 
                                          mu = e * exp(linpred), log = TRUE))
     }
     log_acc_alpha <- llik_alpha.proposed - llik_alpha.old +
                       dgamma(alpha.proposed, shape = pri.alpha$shape,
                           rate = pri.alpha$rate, log = TRUE) -
                       dgamma(alpha.old, shape = pri.alpha$shape,
                           rate = pri.alpha$rate,log=TRUE) +
                       log(alpha.proposed) - log(alpha.old)

     if (log(runif(1)) < log_acc_alpha) {
        alpha <- alpha.proposed
        acc.a <- 1
     } else {
        alpha <- alpha.old
        acc.a <- 0
     }
   
    # Step (c) : Draw phi from its full conditional
    phi <- rgamma(N, shape = alpha + y, rate = alpha + e * exp(linpred))
    
    # Save the draws
    if (m > burnin) {
        beta.post[m - burnin, ] <- beta
        acc.beta[m - burnin] <- acc.b
        
        alpha.post[m - burnin] <- alpha
        acc.alpha[m - burnin] <- acc.a
    }
  }
  return(res = list(beta.post = beta.post, acc.beta = acc.beta,
                    alpha.post = alpha.post,acc.alpha = acc.alpha))
}

We use the same Normal prior as in the Poisson model for the regression effects 𝛃\boldsymbol{\beta} and a Gamma prior 𝒢(2,0.5)\mathcal{G}(2 , 0.5) for α\alpha and run both samplers for M=50,000M=50,000 iterations after a burn-in of 1000.

set.seed(1234)
pri.alpha <- data.frame(shape = 2, rate = 0.5)
M=50000L

# Full Gibbs sampler
res1 <- negbin(y, X, e, qmean = parms.proposal$mean, qvar = parms.proposal$var,
               pri.alpha = pri.alpha, full.gibbs = TRUE, M =M)

res.negbin.full <- rbind(t(apply(res1$beta.post, 2, res.mcmc)), 
                         res.mcmc(res1$alpha.post))
rownames(res.negbin.full)[4] <- "alpha"

ess.beta1 <- coda::effectiveSize(res1$beta.post)
ess.alpha1 <- coda::effectiveSize(res1$alpha.post)
ineff.res1 <-  M/c(ess.beta1, ess.alpha1)

res.negbin.full <- cbind(res.negbin.full, inefficiency=ineff.res1)
knitr::kable(round(res.negbin.full, 3))
2.5% Posterior mean 97.5% inefficiency
intercept -8.361 -8.217 -8.077 1.232
intervention -0.571 -0.362 -0.152 1.224
holiday -1.194 -0.792 -0.426 2.211
alpha 6.526 12.292 21.164 73.778

c(mean(res1$acc.beta), mean(res1$acc.alpha))
#> [1] 0.93478 0.70528

# Partially  marginalised sampler               
res2 <- negbin(y, X, e, qmean = parms.proposal$mean, qvar = parms.proposal$var,
               pri.alpha = pri.alpha, full.gibbs = FALSE, M = M)

res.negbin.partial <- rbind(t(apply(res2$beta.post, 2, res.mcmc)),
                            res.mcmc(res2$alpha.post))
rownames(res.negbin.partial)[4] <- "alpha"

ess.beta2 <- coda::effectiveSize(res2$beta.post)
ess.alpha2 <- coda::effectiveSize(res2$alpha.post)
ineff.res2 <-  M/c(ess.beta2, ess.alpha2)

res.negbin.partial<- cbind(res.negbin.partial, inefficiency=ineff.res2)
knitr::kable(round(res.negbin.partial, 3))
2.5% Posterior mean 97.5% inefficiency
intercept -8.361 -8.217 -8.078 1.224
intervention -0.574 -0.361 -0.153 1.202
holiday -1.186 -0.789 -0.424 1.420
alpha 6.352 12.353 21.544 48.180

c(mean(res2$acc.beta), mean(res2$acc.alpha))
#> [1] 0.93588 0.89602

Both samplers yield essentially the same estimation results, which is to be expected, since both target the same posterior distribution. The overdispersion parameter α\alpha has a posterior mean of 12.3~12.3, which means that overdispersion is not very pronounced.

The two sampler differ, however particularly w.r.t. the inefficiency of α\alpha which has a value of 73.78 in the full sampler, but is smaller with a value of 48.18 for the partially marginalised Gibbs sampler.

Section 8.2.3: Evaluating MCMC samplers

Example 8.10 Veryfying the correctness of the full conditional MCMC samper

We extend the sampler in the scheme (a), (b), (c) by adding as a further step sampling the data from the prior.

negbin_check_abc <- function(X,e, b0 = 0, B0 = 100, qmean, qvar, pri.alpha,
                   full.gibbs = FALSE, burnin = 1000L, M = 50000L) {
  
  N <- nrow(X)
  d <- ncol(X)
  
  if (length(b0)==1){ 
     b0 <- rep(b0, length.out = d)
  }
   if (length(B0)==1){ 
      B0 <- diag(rep(B0, length.out = d), nrow = d)
      }else{ 
        if(length(B0)==d){
        B0 <- diag(B0, nrow = d)
        }
  }
  beta.post  <- matrix(ncol = d, nrow = M)
  colnames(beta.post) <- colnames(X)
  acc.beta <- numeric(length = M)
  
  alpha.post <- rep(NA_real_, M)
  acc.alpha <- rep(NA_real_, M)
  c_alpha <- 0.1
  
  # Set starting values
  phi <- rep(1, N)  
  beta <- as.vector(mvtnorm::rmvnorm(1, mean = qmean, sigma = qvar))
  alpha <- pri.alpha$shape/pri.alpha$rate
  
  for (m in seq_len(burnin + M)){
    
    # sample new data
    y=rnbinom(N, size = alpha, mu = e * exp(X%*%beta))
    
     # Step (a): Draw beta  
     beta.old <- beta
     beta.proposed <- as.vector(mvtnorm::rmvnorm(1, mean = qmean, sigma = qvar))

     # Compute log proposal density at proposed and old value
     lq_proposed <- mvtnorm::dmvnorm(beta.proposed, mean = qmean, sigma = qvar, 
                                     log = TRUE)
     lq_old  <- mvtnorm::dmvnorm(beta.old, mean = qmean, sigma = qvar,
                                 log = TRUE)
            
     # Compute log prior  of proposed and old value
     lpri_proposed <- mvtnorm::dmvnorm(beta.proposed, mean = b0, sigma = B0, 
                                       log = TRUE)
     lpri_old  <- mvtnorm::dmvnorm(beta.old,  mean = b0, sigma = B0, log = TRUE)

     # Compute log likelihood of proposed and old value
     lh_proposed <- dpois(y, e * exp(X %*% beta.proposed), log = TRUE)
     lh_old  <- dpois(y, e * exp(X %*% beta.old), log = TRUE)
    
     maxlik <- max(lh_old, lh_proposed)
     ll <- sum(lh_proposed - maxlik) - sum(lh_old - maxlik)
    
     # Compute acceptance probability and accept or not
     log_acc <- min(0, ll + lpri_proposed - lpri_old + lq_old - lq_proposed)

     if (log(runif(1)) < log_acc) {
        beta <- beta.proposed
        acc.b <- 1
     }else{
        beta <- beta.old
        acc.b <- 0
     }
     linpred <- X %*% beta

     # Step (b): Draw alpha
     alpha.old <- alpha
     alpha.proposed <- alpha.old * exp(c_alpha * rnorm(1))
     
     if (full.gibbs) {
        llik_alpha.proposed <- sum(dgamma(phi, shape = alpha.proposed,
                                          rate = alpha.proposed, log = TRUE))
        llik_alpha.old      <- sum(dgamma(phi, shape = alpha.old,
                                          rate = alpha.old, log = TRUE)) 
     } else {
       llik_alpha.proposed <- sum(dnbinom(y, size = alpha.proposed, 
                                          mu = e * exp(linpred), log = TRUE))
       llik_alpha.old      <- sum(dnbinom(y, size = alpha.old, 
                                          mu = e * exp(linpred), log = TRUE))
     }
     log_acc_alpha <- llik_alpha.proposed - llik_alpha.old +
                       dgamma(alpha.proposed, shape = pri.alpha$shape,
                           rate = pri.alpha$rate, log = TRUE) -
                       dgamma(alpha.old, shape = pri.alpha$shape,
                           rate = pri.alpha$rate,log=TRUE) +
                       log(alpha.proposed) - log(alpha.old)

     if (log(runif(1)) < log_acc_alpha) {
        alpha <- alpha.proposed
        acc.a <- 1
     } else {
        alpha <- alpha.old
        acc.a <- 0
     }
   
    # Step (c) : Draw phi from its full conditional
    phi <- rgamma(N, shape = alpha + y, rate = alpha + e * exp(linpred))
    
    # Save the draws
    if (m > burnin) {
       
        beta.post[m - burnin, ] <- beta
        acc.beta[m - burnin] <- acc.b
        
        alpha.post[m - burnin] <- alpha
        acc.alpha[m - burnin] <- acc.a
    }
  }
  return(res = list(beta.post = beta.post, acc.beta = acc.beta,
                    alpha.post = alpha.post,acc.alpha = acc.alpha))
}

As the data are sampled from the prior distribution, we need a proper prior. Moreover as we draw the regression effects from a tailored Normal proposal, we avoid changing this proposal in each step and set the prior mean to the mean of this proposal and for the prior variance we use the diagonal elements of the proposal. We generate also draws from the prior distribution.

pri.beta <-list(b0=parms.proposal$mean, B0=diag(parms.proposal$var))

We then run the sampler and investigate the draws of intercept and heterogeneity parameter via Q-Q plots of draws from the prior and the posterior.

if (pdfplots) {
  pdf("8-3_1.pdf", width = 8, height = 4)
}
set.seed(123)

res_check_abc<- negbin_check_abc(X, e, b0=pri.beta$b0, B0=pri.beta$B0,pri.alpha,
                                 qmean = parms.proposal$mean, qvar = parms.proposal$var,
                                 full.gibbs = TRUE, M = M)

beta0.prior<- rnorm(M, mean=pri.beta$b0[1], sd=sqrt(pri.beta$B0[1]))
alpha.prior <- rgamma(M,shape=pri.alpha$shape, rate=pri.alpha$rate)

par(mfrow = c(1, 2), mar = c(2.5, 2.5, 1.5, .1), mgp = c(1.5, .5, 0), lwd = 1.5)

qqplot(beta0.prior, res_check_abc$beta.post[, 1], xlab = "Prior",
       ylab = "Posterior", main = "Intercept")
abline(a = 0, b = 1)

qqplot(alpha.prior,res_check_abc$alpha.post,
       xlab = "Prior", ylab = "Posterior", main = "Heterogeneity parameter", 
       xlim=c(0,30), ylim=c(0,30)       )
abline(a = 0, b = 1)

We conclude that the sampler is correct.

We now change the order of the sampling steps to (c)-(b)-(a).

negbin_check_cba <- function(X,e, b0 = 0, B0 = 100, qmean, qvar, pri.alpha,
                   full.gibbs = FALSE, burnin = 1000L, M = 50000L) {
  
  N <- nrow(X)
  d <- ncol(X)
  
  if (length(b0)==1){ 
     b0 <- rep(b0, length.out = d)
  }
   if (length(B0)==1){ 
      B0 <- diag(rep(B0, length.out = d), nrow = d)
      }else{ 
        if(length(B0)==d){
        B0 <- diag(B0, nrow = d)
        }
  }
  beta.post  <- matrix(ncol = d, nrow = M)
  colnames(beta.post) <- colnames(X)
  acc.beta <- numeric(length = M)
  
  alpha.post <- rep(NA_real_, M)
  acc.alpha <- rep(NA_real_, M)
  c_alpha <- 0.1
  
  # Set starting values
  phi <- rep(1, N)  
  beta <- as.vector(mvtnorm::rmvnorm(1, mean = qmean, sigma = qvar))
  alpha <- pri.alpha$shape/pri.alpha$rate
  
  for (m in seq_len(burnin + M)){
    
    # sample new data
    linpred=X%*%beta
    y=rnbinom(N, size = alpha, mu = e * exp(linpred))
    
    # Step (c) : Draw phi from its full conditional
    phi <- rgamma(N, shape = alpha + y, rate = alpha + e * exp(linpred))
     
     # Step (b): Draw alpha
     alpha.old <- alpha
     alpha.proposed <- alpha.old * exp(c_alpha * rnorm(1))
     
     if (full.gibbs) {
        llik_alpha.proposed <- sum(dgamma(phi, shape = alpha.proposed,
                                          rate = alpha.proposed, log = TRUE))
        llik_alpha.old      <- sum(dgamma(phi, shape = alpha.old,
                                          rate = alpha.old, log = TRUE)) 
     } else {
       llik_alpha.proposed <- sum(dnbinom(y, size = alpha.proposed, 
                                          mu = e * exp(linpred), log = TRUE))
       llik_alpha.old      <- sum(dnbinom(y, size = alpha.old, 
                                          mu = e * exp(linpred), log = TRUE))
     }
     log_acc_alpha <- llik_alpha.proposed - llik_alpha.old +
                       dgamma(alpha.proposed, shape = pri.alpha$shape,
                           rate = pri.alpha$rate, log = TRUE) -
                       dgamma(alpha.old, shape = pri.alpha$shape,
                           rate = pri.alpha$rate,log=TRUE) +
                       log(alpha.proposed) - log(alpha.old)

     if (log(runif(1)) < log_acc_alpha) {
        alpha <- alpha.proposed
        acc.a <- 1
     } else {
        alpha <- alpha.old
        acc.a <- 0
     }
   
    # Step (a): Draw beta  
     beta.old <- beta
     beta.proposed <- as.vector(mvtnorm::rmvnorm(1, mean = qmean, sigma = qvar))

     # Compute log proposal density at proposed and old value
     lq_proposed <- mvtnorm::dmvnorm(beta.proposed, mean = qmean, sigma = qvar, 
                                     log = TRUE)
     lq_old  <- mvtnorm::dmvnorm(beta.old, mean = qmean, sigma = qvar,
                                 log = TRUE)
            
     # Compute log prior  of proposed and old value
     lpri_proposed <- mvtnorm::dmvnorm(beta.proposed, mean = b0, sigma = B0, 
                                       log = TRUE)
     lpri_old  <- mvtnorm::dmvnorm(beta.old,  mean = b0, sigma = B0, log = TRUE)

     # Compute log likelihood of proposed and old value
     lh_proposed <- dpois(y, e * exp(X %*% beta.proposed), log = TRUE)
     lh_old  <- dpois(y, e * exp(X %*% beta.old), log = TRUE)
    
     maxlik <- max(lh_old, lh_proposed)
     ll <- sum(lh_proposed - maxlik) - sum(lh_old - maxlik)
    
     # Compute acceptance probability and accept or not
     log_acc <- min(0, ll + lpri_proposed - lpri_old + lq_old - lq_proposed)

     if (log(runif(1)) < log_acc) {
        beta <- beta.proposed
        acc.b <- 1
     }else{
        beta <- beta.old
        acc.b <- 0
     }
     
    # Save the draws
    if (m > burnin) {
       
        beta.post[m - burnin, ] <- beta
        acc.beta[m - burnin] <- acc.b
        
        alpha.post[m - burnin] <- alpha
        acc.alpha[m - burnin] <- acc.a
    }
  }
  return(res = list(beta.post = beta.post, acc.beta = acc.beta,
                    alpha.post = alpha.post,acc.alpha = acc.alpha))
}

We run the sampler under this scheme and show the Q-Q-Plots for the intercept and the heterogeneity parameter.

if (pdfplots) {
  pdf("8-3_2.pdf", width = 8, height = 4)
}
set.seed(123)

res_check_cba<- negbin_check_cba(X, e, b0=pri.beta$b0, B0=pri.beta$B0,pri.alpha,
                                 qmean = parms.proposal$mean, qvar = parms.proposal$var,
                                 full.gibbs = TRUE, M = M)
par(mfrow = c(1, 2), mar = c(2.5, 2.5, 1.5, .1), mgp = c(1.5, .5, 0), lwd = 1.5)

qqplot(beta0.prior, res_check_cba$beta.post[, 1], xlab = "Prior",
       ylab = "Posterior", main = "Intercept")
abline(a = 0, b = 1)

qqplot(alpha.prior,res_check_cba$alpha.post,
       xlab = "Prior", ylab = "Posterior", main =  "Heterogeneity parameter",
       xlim=c(0,30), ylim=c(0,30)
       )
abline(a = 0, b = 1)

Example 8.11

We now analyse the partial marginalised Gibbs sampler, first in the order (a)-(b)-(c)


if (pdfplots) {
  pdf("8-3_3.pdf", width = 8, height = 4)
}
set.seed(123)
#order (a)-(b)-(c)
res_check_abc<- negbin_check_abc(X, e, b0=pri.beta$b0, B0=pri.beta$B0,pri.alpha,
                                 qmean = parms.proposal$mean, qvar = parms.proposal$var,
                                 full.gibbs = FALSE, M = M)
par(mfrow = c(1, 2), mar = c(2.5, 2.5, 1.5, .1), mgp = c(1.5, .5, 0), lwd = 1.5)

qqplot(beta0.prior, res_check_abc$beta.post[, 1], xlab = "Prior",
       ylab = "Posterior", main = "Intercept")
abline(a = 0, b = 1)

qqplot(alpha.prior,res_check_abc$alpha.post,
       xlab = "Prior", ylab = "Posterior", main  = "Heterogeneity parameter", 
       xlim=c(0,30), ylim=c(0,30)   )
abline(a = 0, b = 1)

and then in the order (c)-(b)-(a)

set.seed(1)
if (pdfplots) {
  pdf("8-3_4.pdf", width = 8, height = 4)
}
set.seed(123)
# order (c)- (b)-(a)
res_check_cba<- negbin_check_cba(X, e, b0=pri.beta$b0, B0=pri.beta$B0,pri.alpha,
                                 qmean = parms.proposal$mean, qvar = parms.proposal$var,
                                 full.gibbs = FALSE, M = M)
par(mfrow = c(1, 2), mar = c(2.5, 2.5, 1.5, .1), mgp = c(1.5, .5, 0), lwd = 1.5)

qqplot(beta0.prior, res_check_cba$beta.post[, 1], xlab = "Prior",
       ylab = "Posterior", main = "Intercept")
abline(a = 0, b = 1)

qqplot(alpha.prior,res_check_cba$alpha.post,
       xlab = "Prior", ylab = "Posterior", main = "Heterogeneity parameter",
       xlim=c(0,30), ylim=c(0,30)  )
abline(a = 0, b = 1)

Section 8.3: Beyond i.i.d. Gaussian error distributions

Section 8.3.1: Regression analysis with heteroskedastic errors

Example 8.12: Star cluster data

The bivariate data set of the star cluster CYG OB1 is available in package robustbase and we load it from this package and visualize it in a scatter plot:

data("starsCYG", package = "robustbase")
plot(starsCYG, pch = 19, xlim = c(3, 5), ylim = c(3, 7),
     xlab = "log temperature", ylab = "log light intensity")

The four giant stars which can also be identified in the scatter plot have the following indices in the data set:

index <- c(11, 20, 30, 34)

We fit a standard Bayesian regression analysis under the improper prior p(β0,β1,σ2)1/σ2p(\beta_0, \beta_1, \sigma^2) \propto 1 / \sigma^2 and determine the mean and pointwise 95%-HPD regions of the posterior predictive distribution p(yi|xi=x,𝐲)p(y_i |x_i = x, \mathbf{y}) using (a) the full data set and (b) the data set where the observations y11y_{11}, y20y_{20}, y30y_{30}, y34y_{34} corresponding to the giant stars are omitted.

The posterior predictive distribution for a single observation ii with covariate value xix_i given the sample 𝐲\mathbf{y} with model matrix 𝐗\mathbf{X} is available in closed form when using the improper prior and corresponds to the prediction intervals obtained using OLS estimation.

ols_all <- lm(log.light ~ log.Te, data = starsCYG)
xnew <- seq(3, 5, length.out = 100)
preds_all <- predict(ols_all, newdata = data.frame(log.Te = xnew),
                     interval = "prediction")
ols_subset <- lm(log.light ~ log.Te, data = starsCYG[-index, ])
preds_subset <- predict(ols_subset, newdata = data.frame(log.Te = xnew),
                        interval = "prediction")

We compare the expected values (full lines) and the pointwise 95%-HPD regions in the following figure for the model fit using all data (left) and only the subset without the giant stars (right).

Figure 8.9: Star cluster data

plot(starsCYG, pch = 19, xlim = c(3, 5), ylim = c(3, 7),
     xlab = "log temperature", ylab = "log light intensity")
lines(xnew, preds_all[, "fit"])
lines(xnew, preds_all[, "lwr"], lty = 2)
lines(xnew, preds_all[, "upr"], lty = 2)
plot(starsCYG, pch = 19, xlim = c(3, 5), ylim = c(3, 7),
     xlab = "log temperature", ylab = "log light intensity")
lines(xnew, preds_subset[, "fit"])
lines(xnew, preds_subset[, "lwr"], lty = 2)
lines(xnew, preds_subset[, "upr"], lty = 2)

Example 8.13: Star cluster data - heteroskedastic regression analysis with known outliers

We define the binary indicator indicating outlying observations, i.e., in this case observations corresponding to giant stars.

S <- rep(1L, nrow(starsCYG))
S[index] <- 2L

We prepare the model matrix and the vector of the response and define the dimensions.

X <- cbind(1, starsCYG$log.Te)
y <- starsCYG$log.light
N <- length(y)
d <- ncol(X)

For the heteroskedastic regression, we define weights depending on the binary indicator which are either 1 or equal to ϕ1\phi \ll 1.

phi <- 0.001
w <- phi^(S - 1)

We include the weights and update the Gibbs sampling scheme for the linear regression defined in Chapter 6 accordingly.

set.seed(1)

# define prior parameters of semi-conjugate prior
B0inv <- diag(rep(1 / 10000, d), nrow = d)
b0 <- rep(0, d)

c0 <- 2.5
C0 <- 1.5

# define quantities for the Gibbs sampler taking the weights into
# account
Xtilde <- sqrt(w) * X
ytilde <- sqrt(w) * y
wXX <- crossprod(Xtilde)
wXy <- t(Xtilde) %*% ytilde
cN <- c0 + N / 2

# define burnin and M
burnin <- 1000
M <- 100000

# prepare storing of results
betas <- matrix(NA_real_, nrow = burnin + M, ncol = d)
sigma2s <- rep(NA_real_, burnin + M)
colnames(betas) <- colnames(X)

# starting value for sigma2
sigma2 <- var(y) / 2

for (m in 1:(burnin + M)) {
    # sample beta from the full conditional
    BN <- solve(B0inv + wXX / sigma2)
    bN <- BN %*% (B0inv %*% b0 + wXy / sigma2)
    beta <- t(mvtnorm::rmvnorm(1, mean = bN, sigma = BN))

    # sample sigma^2 from its full conditional
    eps <- ytilde - Xtilde %*% beta
    CN <- C0 + crossprod(eps) / 2
    sigma2 <- rinvgamma(1, cN, CN)

    betas[m, ] <- beta
    sigma2s[m] <- sigma2
}

Based on the posterior draws of the parameters we determine draws from the predictive distributions for new observations with xnew values:

pred_hetero <- sapply(1:M, function(m) {
    rnorm(length(xnew), cbind(1, xnew) %*% betas[m, ], sqrt(sigma2s[m]))
})
plot(starsCYG, pch = 19, xlim = c(3, 5), ylim = c(3, 7),
     xlab = "log temperature", ylab = "log light intensity")
lines(xnew, rowMeans(pred_hetero))
lines(xnew, apply(pred_hetero, 1, quantile, 0.025), lty = 2)
lines(xnew, apply(pred_hetero, 1, quantile, 0.975), lty = 2)

Example 8.14: Star cluster data - regression analysis with Gaussian two-component mixture errors

We now assume that the indices of the giant stars are not known. We only assume that a two-component mixture is used as weight distribution where the weights are given by wi=ϕSi1w_i = \phi^{S_i-1} and the indicators SiS_i are unknown. But we assume that the proportion of giant stars is known and we assume this to correspond to 10%.

eta <- 0.1
phi <- 0.001
# define prior parameters of semi-conjugate prior
B0inv <- diag(rep(1, d), nrow = d)
b0 <- coef(ols_subset)

We now modify the Gibbs sampling code to include a sampling step for the mixture component indicators.

set.seed(1)

# starting values for beta and sigma2
beta <- coef(ols_subset)
sigma2 <- var(y) / 2

for (m in seq_len(burnin + M)) {
    # mixture component indicator
    Xbeta <- X %*% beta
    posterior <- cbind((1 - eta) * dnorm(y, Xbeta, sqrt(sigma2)),
                       eta * dnorm(y, Xbeta, sqrt(sigma2 / phi)))
    posterior <- posterior / rowSums(posterior)
    S <- 1 + rbinom(nrow(posterior), prob = posterior[, 2],
                    size = 1)

    # re-weight
    w <- phi^(S - 1)
    Xtilde <- sqrt(w) * X
    ytilde <- sqrt(w) * y
    wXX <- crossprod(Xtilde)
    wXy <- t(Xtilde) %*% ytilde

    # sample beta from the full conditional
    BN <- solve(B0inv + wXX / sigma2)
    bN <- BN %*% (B0inv %*% b0 + wXy / sigma2)
    beta <- t(mvtnorm::rmvnorm(1, mean = bN, sigma = BN))

    # sample sigma^2 from its full conditional
    eps <- ytilde - Xtilde %*% beta
    CN <- C0 + crossprod(eps) / 2
    sigma2 <- rinvgamma(1, cN, CN)

    betas[m, ] <- beta
    sigma2s[m] <- sigma2
}
preds_mix_1 <- sapply(1:M, function(m) {
    rnorm(length(xnew), cbind(1, xnew) %*% betas[m, ], sqrt(sigma2s[m]))
})

We visualize again the mean and the 95%-HPD region together with the data points and show that the fit now is robust to the outlying observations.

plot(starsCYG, pch = 19, xlim = c(3, 5), ylim = c(3, 7),
     xlab = "log temperature", ylab = "log light intensity")
lines(xnew, rowMeans(preds_mix_1))
lines(xnew, apply(preds_mix_1, 1, quantile, 0.025), lty = 2)
lines(xnew, apply(preds_mix_1, 1, quantile, 0.975), lty = 2)

We now assume that the indices of the giant stars are not known. We only assume that a two-component mixture is used as weight distribution where the weights are given by wi=ϕSi1w_i = \phi^{S_i-1} and the indicators SiS_i are unknown. Now, we also assume that the proportion of giant stars is unknown.

We need to specify a prior for η\eta. The usual prior is a beta prior and we will use a prior which has mean 0.1 and corresponds to a prior sample size of 10.

a0 <- 1
d0 <- 9

We now modify the Gibbs sampling code to also include a sampling step for the component size.

set.seed(1)

# prepare storing of results
etas <- rep(NA_real_, burnin + M)

# starting values for eta, beta and sigma2
eta <- 0.1
beta <- coef(ols_subset)
sigma2 <- var(y) / 2

for (m in seq_len(burnin + M)) {
    # mixture component indicator
    Xbeta <- X %*% beta
    posterior <- cbind((1 - eta) * dnorm(y, Xbeta, sqrt(sigma2)),
                       eta * dnorm(y, Xbeta, sqrt(sigma2 / phi)))
    posterior <- posterior / rowSums(posterior)
    S <- 1 + rbinom(nrow(posterior), prob = posterior[, 2],
                    size = 1)

    # sample eta
    aN <- a0 + sum(S == 2)
    dN <- d0 + sum(S == 1)
    eta <- rbeta(1, aN, dN)

    # re-weight
    w <- phi^(S - 1)
    Xtilde <- sqrt(w) * X
    ytilde <- sqrt(w) * y
    wXX <- crossprod(Xtilde)
    wXy <- t(Xtilde) %*% ytilde

    # sample beta from the full conditional
    BN <- solve(B0inv + wXX / sigma2)
    bN <- BN %*% (B0inv %*% b0 + wXy / sigma2)
    beta <- t(mvtnorm::rmvnorm(1, mean = bN, sigma = BN))

    # sample sigma^2 from its full conditional
    eps <- ytilde - Xtilde %*% beta
    CN <- C0 + crossprod(eps) / 2
    sigma2 <- rinvgamma(1, cN, CN)

    betas[m, ] <- beta
    sigma2s[m] <- sigma2
    etas[m] <- eta
}
preds_mix_2 <- sapply(1:M, function(m) {
    rnorm(length(xnew), cbind(1, xnew) %*% betas[m, ], sqrt(sigma2s[m]))
})
plot(starsCYG, pch = 19, xlim = c(3, 5), ylim = c(3, 7),
     xlab = "log temperature", ylab = "log light intensity")
lines(xnew, rowMeans(preds_mix_2))
lines(xnew, apply(preds_mix_2, 1, quantile, 0.025), lty = 2)
lines(xnew, apply(preds_mix_2, 1, quantile, 0.975), lty = 2)

Finally, we visualize again the mean and the 95%-HPD region together with the data points for the three modeling approaches: (1) a heteroskedastic regression analysis with known outliers, (2) a Gaussian two-component mixture with known component sizes and (3) a Gaussian two-component mixture where the component size is unknown.

plot(starsCYG, pch = 19, xlim = c(3, 5), ylim = c(3, 7),
     xlab = "log temperature", ylab = "log light intensity")
lines(xnew, rowMeans(pred_hetero))
lines(xnew, apply(pred_hetero, 1, quantile, 0.025), lty = 2)
lines(xnew, apply(pred_hetero, 1, quantile, 0.975), lty = 2)
plot(starsCYG, pch = 19, xlim = c(3, 5), ylim = c(3, 7),
     xlab = "log temperature", ylab = "log light intensity")
lines(xnew, rowMeans(preds_mix_1))
lines(xnew, apply(preds_mix_1, 1, quantile, 0.025), lty = 2)
lines(xnew, apply(preds_mix_1, 1, quantile, 0.975), lty = 2)
plot(starsCYG, pch = 19, xlim = c(3, 5), ylim = c(3, 7),
     xlab = "log temperature", ylab = "log light intensity")
lines(xnew, rowMeans(preds_mix_2))
lines(xnew, apply(preds_mix_2, 1, quantile, 0.025), lty = 2)
lines(xnew, apply(preds_mix_2, 1, quantile, 0.975), lty = 2)

The plot indicates that all three modeling approaches result in a fit that is robust to the outlying observations.