Modeling Count Data


Book Description

This book provides guidelines and fully worked examples of how to select, construct, interpret and evaluate the full range of count models.




Actuarial Modelling of Claim Counts


Book Description

There are a wide range of variables for actuaries to consider when calculating a motorist’s insurance premium, such as age, gender and type of vehicle. Further to these factors, motorists’ rates are subject to experience rating systems, including credibility mechanisms and Bonus Malus systems (BMSs). Actuarial Modelling of Claim Counts presents a comprehensive treatment of the various experience rating systems and their relationships with risk classification. The authors summarize the most recent developments in the field, presenting ratemaking systems, whilst taking into account exogenous information. The text: Offers the first self-contained, practical approach to a priori and a posteriori ratemaking in motor insurance. Discusses the issues of claim frequency and claim severity, multi-event systems, and the combinations of deductibles and BMSs. Introduces recent developments in actuarial science and exploits the generalised linear model and generalised linear mixed model to achieve risk classification. Presents credibility mechanisms as refinements of commercial BMSs. Provides practical applications with real data sets processed with SAS software. Actuarial Modelling of Claim Counts is essential reading for students in actuarial science, as well as practicing and academic actuaries. It is also ideally suited for professionals involved in the insurance industry, applied mathematicians, quantitative economists, financial engineers and statisticians.




Finite Mixture Models


Book Description

An up-to-date, comprehensive account of major issues in finitemixture modeling This volume provides an up-to-date account of the theory andapplications of modeling via finite mixture distributions. With anemphasis on the applications of mixture models in both mainstreamanalysis and other areas such as unsupervised pattern recognition,speech recognition, and medical imaging, the book describes theformulations of the finite mixture approach, details itsmethodology, discusses aspects of its implementation, andillustrates its application in many common statisticalcontexts. Major issues discussed in this book include identifiabilityproblems, actual fitting of finite mixtures through use of the EMalgorithm, properties of the maximum likelihood estimators soobtained, assessment of the number of components to be used in themixture, and the applicability of asymptotic theory in providing abasis for the solutions to some of these problems. The author alsoconsiders how the EM algorithm can be scaled to handle the fittingof mixture models to very large databases, as in data miningapplications. This comprehensive, practical guide: * Provides more than 800 references-40% published since 1995 * Includes an appendix listing available mixture software * Links statistical literature with machine learning and patternrecognition literature * Contains more than 100 helpful graphs, charts, and tables Finite Mixture Models is an important resource for both applied andtheoretical statisticians as well as for researchers in the manyareas in which finite mixture models can be used to analyze data.




Beyond Multiple Linear Regression


Book Description

Beyond Multiple Linear Regression: Applied Generalized Linear Models and Multilevel Models in R is designed for undergraduate students who have successfully completed a multiple linear regression course, helping them develop an expanded modeling toolkit that includes non-normal responses and correlated structure. Even though there is no mathematical prerequisite, the authors still introduce fairly sophisticated topics such as likelihood theory, zero-inflated Poisson, and parametric bootstrapping in an intuitive and applied manner. The case studies and exercises feature real data and real research questions; thus, most of the data in the textbook comes from collaborative research conducted by the authors and their students, or from student projects. Every chapter features a variety of conceptual exercises, guided exercises, and open-ended exercises using real data. After working through this material, students will develop an expanded toolkit and a greater appreciation for the wider world of data and statistical modeling. A solutions manual for all exercises is available to qualified instructors at the book’s website at www.routledge.com, and data sets and Rmd files for all case studies and exercises are available at the authors’ GitHub repo (https://github.com/proback/BeyondMLR)




The Statistical Analysis of Recurrent Events


Book Description

This book presents models and statistical methods for the analysis of recurrent event data. The authors provide broad, detailed coverage of the major approaches to analysis, while emphasizing the modeling assumptions that they are based on. More general intensity-based models are also considered, as well as simpler models that focus on rate or mean functions. Parametric, nonparametric and semiparametric methodologies are all covered, with procedures for estimation, testing and model checking.




Loss Models


Book Description

An update of one of the most trusted books on constructing and analyzing actuarial models Written by three renowned authorities in the actuarial field, Loss Models, Third Edition upholds the reputation for excellence that has made this book required reading for the Society of Actuaries (SOA) and Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) qualification examinations. This update serves as a complete presentation of statistical methods for measuring risk and building models to measure loss in real-world events. This book maintains an approach to modeling and forecasting that utilizes tools related to risk theory, loss distributions, and survival models. Random variables, basic distributional quantities, the recursive method, and techniques for classifying and creating distributions are also discussed. Both parametric and non-parametric estimation methods are thoroughly covered along with advice for choosing an appropriate model. Features of the Third Edition include: Extended discussion of risk management and risk measures, including Tail-Value-at-Risk (TVaR) New sections on extreme value distributions and their estimation Inclusion of homogeneous, nonhomogeneous, and mixed Poisson processes Expanded coverage of copula models and their estimation Additional treatment of methods for constructing confidence regions when there is more than one parameter The book continues to distinguish itself by providing over 400 exercises that have appeared on previous SOA and CAS examinations. Intriguing examples from the fields of insurance and business are discussed throughout, and all data sets are available on the book's FTP site, along with programs that assist with conducting loss model analysis. Loss Models, Third Edition is an essential resource for students and aspiring actuaries who are preparing to take the SOA and CAS preliminary examinations. It is also a must-have reference for professional actuaries, graduate students in the actuarial field, and anyone who works with loss and risk models in their everyday work. To explore our additional offerings in actuarial exam preparation visit www.wiley.com/go/actuarialexamprep.




Statistical Analysis of Extreme Values


Book Description

The statistical analysis of extreme data is important for various disciplines, including hydrology, insurance, finance, engineering and environmental sciences. This book provides a self-contained introduction to the parametric modeling, exploratory analysis and statistical interference for extreme values. The entire text of this third edition has been thoroughly updated and rearranged to meet the new requirements. Additional sections and chapters, elaborated on more than 100 pages, are particularly concerned with topics like dependencies, the conditional analysis and the multivariate modeling of extreme data. Parts I–III about the basic extreme value methodology remain unchanged to some larger extent, yet notable are, e.g., the new sections about "An Overview of Reduced-Bias Estimation" (co-authored by M.I. Gomes), "The Spectral Decomposition Methodology", and "About Tail Independence" (co-authored by M. Frick), and the new chapter about "Extreme Value Statistics of Dependent Random Variables" (co-authored by H. Drees). Other new topics, e.g., a chapter about "Environmental Sciences", (co--authored by R.W. Katz), are collected within Parts IV–VI.




Recent Advances in Life-Testing and Reliability


Book Description

This unique volume presents chapters written on the areas of life-testing and reliability by many well-known researchers who have contributed significantly to these two areas over the years. Chapters cover a wide range of topics such as inference under censoring and truncation, reliability growth models, designs to improve quality, prediction techniques, Bayesian analysis of reliability, multivariate methods, accelerated testing, and more. The book is written in an easy-to-follow style, first presenting the necessary theoretical details and then illustrating the methods with a numerical examples wherever possible. Many tables and graphs that are essential for the use of some of the new methodologies are presented throughout the volume. Numerous examples provide the reader with a clear understanding of the methods presented as well as with insight into the applications of these results.




Advances and Challenges in Space-time Modelling of Natural Events


Book Description

This book arises as the natural continuation of the International Spring School "Advances and Challenges in Space-Time modelling of Natural Events," which took place in Toledo (Spain) in March 2010. This Spring School above all focused on young researchers (Master students, PhD students and post-doctoral researchers) in academics, extra-university research and the industry who are interested in learning about recent developments, new methods and applications in spatial statistics and related areas, and in exchanging ideas and findings with colleagues.