Actuarial Theory for Dependent Risks


Book Description

The increasing complexity of insurance and reinsurance products has seen a growing interest amongst actuaries in the modelling of dependent risks. For efficient risk management, actuaries need to be able to answer fundamental questions such as: Is the correlation structure dangerous? And, if yes, to what extent? Therefore tools to quantify, compare, and model the strength of dependence between different risks are vital. Combining coverage of stochastic order and risk measure theories with the basics of risk management and stochastic dependence, this book provides an essential guide to managing modern financial risk. * Describes how to model risks in incomplete markets, emphasising insurance risks. * Explains how to measure and compare the danger of risks, model their interactions, and measure the strength of their association. * Examines the type of dependence induced by GLM-based credibility models, the bounds on functions of dependent risks, and probabilistic distances between actuarial models. * Detailed presentation of risk measures, stochastic orderings, copula models, dependence concepts and dependence orderings. * Includes numerous exercises allowing a cementing of the concepts by all levels of readers. * Solutions to tasks as well as further examples and exercises can be found on a supporting website. An invaluable reference for both academics and practitioners alike, Actuarial Theory for Dependent Risks will appeal to all those eager to master the up-to-date modelling tools for dependent risks. The inclusion of exercises and practical examples makes the book suitable for advanced courses on risk management in incomplete markets. Traders looking for practical advice on insurance markets will also find much of interest.




Longitudinal Data Analysis


Book Description

Although many books currently available describe statistical models and methods for analyzing longitudinal data, they do not highlight connections between various research threads in the statistical literature. Responding to this void, Longitudinal Data Analysis provides a clear, comprehensive, and unified overview of state-of-the-art theory




Joint Models for Longitudinal and Time-to-Event Data


Book Description

In longitudinal studies it is often of interest to investigate how a marker that is repeatedly measured in time is associated with a time to an event of interest, e.g., prostate cancer studies where longitudinal PSA level measurements are collected in conjunction with the time-to-recurrence. Joint Models for Longitudinal and Time-to-Event Data: With Applications in R provides a full treatment of random effects joint models for longitudinal and time-to-event outcomes that can be utilized to analyze such data. The content is primarily explanatory, focusing on applications of joint modeling, but sufficient mathematical details are provided to facilitate understanding of the key features of these models. All illustrations put forward can be implemented in the R programming language via the freely available package JM written by the author. All the R code used in the book is available at: http://jmr.r-forge.r-project.org/




Frailty Models in Survival Analysis


Book Description

The concept of frailty offers a convenient way to introduce unobserved heterogeneity and associations into models for survival data. In its simplest form, frailty is an unobserved random proportionality factor that modifies the hazard function of an individual or a group of related individuals. Frailty Models in Survival Analysis presents a comprehensive overview of the fundamental approaches in the area of frailty models. The book extensively explores how univariate frailty models can represent unobserved heterogeneity. It also emphasizes correlated frailty models as extensions of univariate and shared frailty models. The author analyzes similarities and differences between frailty and copula models; discusses problems related to frailty models, such as tests for homogeneity; and describes parametric and semiparametric models using both frequentist and Bayesian approaches. He also shows how to apply the models to real data using the statistical packages of R, SAS, and Stata. The appendix provides the technical mathematical results used throughout. Written in nontechnical terms accessible to nonspecialists, this book explains the basic ideas in frailty modeling and statistical techniques, with a focus on real-world data application and interpretation of the results. By applying several models to the same data, it allows for the comparison of their advantages and limitations under varying model assumptions. The book also employs simulations to analyze the finite sample size performance of the models.




Modeling Survival Data Using Frailty Models


Book Description

This book presents the basic concepts of survival analysis and frailty models, covering both fundamental and advanced topics. It focuses on applications of statistical tools in biology and medicine, highlighting the latest frailty-model methodologies and applications in these areas. After explaining the basic concepts of survival analysis, the book goes on to discuss shared, bivariate, and correlated frailty models and their applications. It also features nine datasets that have been analyzed using the R statistical package. Covering recent topics, not addressed elsewhere in the literature, this book is of immense use to scientists, researchers, students and teachers.




Advances in Reliability and Maintainability Methods and Engineering Applications


Book Description

This comprehensive book brings together the latest developments in reliability and maintainability methods from leading research groups globally. Covering a diverse range of subject areas, from mechanical systems to cyber-physical systems, the book offers both theoretical advancements and practical applications in various industries. With a focus on reliability modelling, reliability analysis, reliability design, maintenance optimization, warranty policy, prognostics and health management, this book appeals to academic and industrial professionals in the field of reliability engineering and beyond. It features real-world case studies from turbofan engines bearings, industrial robots, wireless networks, aircraft actuation systems, and more. This book is ideal for engineers, scientists, and graduate students in reliability, maintainability, design optimization, prognostics and health management, and applied probability and statistics.




Advanced Medical Statistics (2nd Edition)


Book Description

The book aims to provide both comprehensive reviews of the classical methods and an introduction to new developments in medical statistics. The topics range from meta analysis, clinical trial design, causal inference, personalized medicine to machine learning and next generation sequence analysis. Since the publication of the first edition, there have been tremendous advances in biostatistics and bioinformatics. The new edition tries to cover as many important emerging areas and reflect as much progress as possible. Many distinguished scholars, who greatly advanced their research areas in statistical methodology as well as practical applications, also have revised several chapters with relevant updates and written new ones from scratch.The new edition has been divided into four sections, including, Statistical Methods in Medicine and Epidemiology, Statistical Methods in Clinical Trials, Statistical Genetics, and General Methods. To reflect the rise of modern statistical genetics as one of the most fertile research areas since the publication of the first edition, the brand new section on Statistical Genetics includes entirely new chapters reflecting the state of the art in the field.Although tightly related, all the book chapters are self-contained and can be read independently. The book chapters intend to provide a convenient launch pad for readers interested in learning a specific topic, applying the related statistical methods in their scientific research and seeking the newest references for in-depth research.




The Frailty Model


Book Description

Readers will find in the pages of this book a treatment of the statistical analysis of clustered survival data. Such data are encountered in many scientific disciplines including human and veterinary medicine, biology, epidemiology, public health and demography. A typical example is the time to death in cancer patients, with patients clustered in hospitals. Frailty models provide a powerful tool to analyze clustered survival data. In this book different methods based on the frailty model are described and it is demonstrated how they can be used to analyze clustered survival data. All programs used for these examples are available on the Springer website.




Developing a Protocol for Observational Comparative Effectiveness Research: A User's Guide


Book Description

This User’s Guide is a resource for investigators and stakeholders who develop and review observational comparative effectiveness research protocols. It explains how to (1) identify key considerations and best practices for research design; (2) build a protocol based on these standards and best practices; and (3) judge the adequacy and completeness of a protocol. Eleven chapters cover all aspects of research design, including: developing study objectives, defining and refining study questions, addressing the heterogeneity of treatment effect, characterizing exposure, selecting a comparator, defining and measuring outcomes, and identifying optimal data sources. Checklists of guidance and key considerations for protocols are provided at the end of each chapter. The User’s Guide was created by researchers affiliated with AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program, particularly those who participated in AHRQ’s DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions About Effectiveness) program. Chapters were subject to multiple internal and external independent reviews. More more information, please consult the Agency website: www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov)




Surplus Analysis of Sparre Andersen Insurance Risk Processes


Book Description

This carefully written monograph covers the Sparre Andersen process in an actuarial context using the renewal process as the model for claim counts. A unified reference on Sparre Andersen (renewal risk) processes is included, often missing from existing literature. The authors explore recent results and analyse various risk theoretic quantities associated with the event of ruin, including the time of ruin and the deficit of ruin. Particular attention is given to the explicit identification of defective renewal equation components, which are needed to analyse various risk theoretic quantities and are also relevant in other subject areas of applied probability such as dams and storage processes, as well as queuing theory. Aimed at researchers interested in risk/ruin theory and related areas, this work will also appeal to graduate students in classical and modern risk theory and Gerber-Shiu analysis.