The First Detailed Account of Statistical Analysis That Treats Models as Approximations

The idea of truth plays a role in both Bayesian and frequentist statistics. The Bayesian concept of coherence is based on the fact that two different models or parameter values cannot both be true. Frequentist statistics is formulated as the problem of estimating the "true but unknown" parameter value that generated the data.

Forgoing any concept of truth, Data Analysis and Approximate Models: Model Choice, Location-Scale, Analysis of Variance, Nonparametric...

Select the Optimal Model for Interpreting Multivariate Data

Introduction to Multivariate Analysis: Linear and Nonlinear Modeling shows how multivariate analysis is widely used for extracting useful information and patterns from multivariate data and for understanding the structure of random phenomena. Along with the basic concepts of various procedures in traditional multivariate analysis, the book covers nonlinear techniques for clarifying phenomena behind observed multivariate data. It primarily focuses on regression modeling, classification and...

Dependence Modeling with Copulas covers the substantial advances that have taken place in the field during the last 15 years, including vine copula modeling of high-dimensional data. Vine copula models are constructed from a sequence of bivariate copulas. The book develops generalizations of vine copula models, including common and structured factor models that extend from the Gaussian assumption to copulas. It also discusses other multivariate constructions and parametric copula families that have different tail properties and presents extensive material on dependence and...

This book covers the recent advancement of statistical methods for the analysis of longitudinal data. Real datasets from four large NIH-supported longitudinal clinical trials and epidemiological studies illustrate the practical applications of the statistical methods. This book focuses on the nonparametric approaches, which have gained tremendous popularity in biomedical studies. These approaches have the flexibility to answer many scientific questions that cannot be properly addressed by the existing parametric approaches, such as the linear and nonlinear mixed effects models.

Semialgebraic Statistics and Latent Tree Models explains how to analyze statistical models with hidden (latent) variables. It takes a systematic, geometric approach to studying the semialgebraic structure of latent tree models.

The first part of the book gives a general introduction to key concepts in algebraic statistics, focusing on methods that are helpful in the study of models with hidden variables. The author uses tensor geometry as a natural language to deal with multivariate probability distributions, develops new combinatorial tools to study models...

Clustering remains a vibrant area of research in statistics. Although there are many books on this topic, there are relatively few that are well founded in the theoretical aspects. In Robust Cluster Analysis and Variable Selection, Gunter Ritter presents an overview of the theory and applications of probabilistic clustering and variable selection, synthesizing the key research results of the last 50 years.

The author focuses on the robust clustering methods he found to be the most useful on simulated data and real-time applications. The book provides clear guidance...

Bayesian Inference for Partially Identified Models: Exploring the Limits of Limited Data shows how the Bayesian approach to inference is applicable to partially identified models (PIMs) and examines the performance of Bayesian procedures in partially identified contexts. Drawing on his many years of research in this area, the author presents a thorough overview of the statistical theory, properties, and applications of PIMs.

The book first describes how reparameterization can assist in computing posterior quantities and providing insight into the properties...

Since the publication of the first edition over 30 years ago, the literature related to Pareto distributions has flourished to encompass computer-based inference methods. Pareto Distributions, Second Edition provides broad, up-to-date coverage of the Pareto model and its extensions. This edition expands several chapters to accommodate recent results and reflect the increased use of more computer-intensive inference procedures.

New to the Second Edition

• New material on multivariate inequality
• Recent ways of handling the...

A Sound Basis for the Theory of Statistical Inference

Measuring Statistical Evidence Using Relative Belief provides an overview of recent work on developing a theory of statistical inference based on measuring statistical evidence. It shows that being explicit about how to measure statistical evidence allows you to answer the basic question of when a statistical analysis is correct.

The book attempts to establish a gold standard for how a statistical analysis should proceed. It first introduces basic features of the overall approach, such as...

A New Approach to Sound Statistical Reasoning

Inferential Models: Reasoning with Uncertainty introduces the authors recently developed approach to inference: the inferential model (IM) framework. This logical framework for exact probabilistic inference does not require the user to input prior information. The authors show how an IM produces meaningful prior-free probabilistic inference at a high level.

The book covers the foundational motivations for this new IM approach, the basic theory behind its calibration properties, a number of...