Length-biased sampling method gives the samples from a weighted distribution. With the underlying distribution of the population, one can estimate the attributes of the population by converting the weighted samples. In this thesis, generalized gamma distribution is considered as the underlying distribution of the population and the inference of the weighted distribution is made. Both the models with known and unknown finite population size are considered. In the modes with known finite population size, maximum likelihood estimation and bootstrapping methods are attempted to derive the distributions of the parameters and population mean. For the sake of comparison, both the models with and without the selection bias are built. The computer simulation results show the model with selection bias gives better prediction for the population mean. In the model with unknown finite population size, the distributions of the population size as well as the sample complements are derived. Bayesian analysis is performed using numerical methods. Both the Gibbs sampler and random sampling method are employed to generate the parameters from their joint posterior distribution. The fitness of the size-biased samples are checked by utilizing conditional predictive ordinate.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The two-part model (2PM) is the most widely applied modeling and estimation framework in empirical health economics. By design, the two-part model allows the process governing observation at zero to systematically differ from that which determines non-zero observations. The former is commonly referred to as the extensive margin (EM) and the latter is called the intensive margin (IM). The analytic focus of my dissertation is on the development of a general framework for specifying, estimating and drawing inference regarding causally interpretable (CI) effect parameters in the 2PM context. Our proposed fully parametric 2PM (FP2PM) framework comprises very flexible versions of the EM and IM for both continuous and count-valued outcome models and encompasses all implementations of the 2PM found in the literature. Because our modeling approach is potential outcomes (PO) based, it provides a context for clear definition of targeted counterfactual CI parameters of interest. This PO basis also provides a context for identifying the conditions under which such parameters can be consistently estimated using the observable data (via the appropriately specified data generating process). These conditions also ensure that the estimation results are CI. There is substantial literature on statistical testing for model selection in the 2PM context, yet there has been virtually no attention paid to testing the “one-part” null hypothesis. Within our general modeling and estimation framework, we devise a relatively simple test of that null for both continuous and count-valued outcomes. We illustrate our proposed model, method and testing protocol in the context of estimating price effects on the demand for alcohol.

存活分析主要在研究事件的發生時間；傳統的存活分析並不考慮治癒者(或免疫者)的存在。若以失敗為事件，且造成失敗的可能原因不止一種，但它們不會同時發生，則這些失敗原因就是失敗事件的競爭風險。競爭風險可分為有參數的競爭風險與無母數的競爭風險。本文同時考慮了有治癒與有參數的混合廣義Gamma分配，並將預估計的位置參數與失敗機率有關的參數與解釋變數結合，代入Choi及Zhou(2002)提出的最大概似估計量的大樣本性質。並考慮在治癒情況下，利用電腦模擬來估計在型一設限及無訊息(non-informative)的隨機設限(random censoring)下之一個失敗原因與兩個失敗原因下的參數平均數與標準差。 / The purpose of survival analysis is aiming to analyze the timeline of events. The typically method of survival analysis don’t take account of the curer (or the immune). If the event is related to failure and there are more than one possible reason causing the failure but are not happening at the same time, we called the possible reasons a competing risk for failed occurrence. competing risk can be categorized as parameter and non-parameter. This research has considered the generalized gamma distribution over both cure and parameter aspects. In addition, it combines anticipated parameter with covariate which affected to the possibilities of failure. Follow by the previous data, it is then substituted by the large-sample property of the maximum likelihood estimator which is presented by Choi and Zhou in 2002. With considering the possibilities of cure, it uses computer modeling to investigate that under the condition of type-1 censoring and non-informatively random censoring, we will find out the parameter mean and standard error that is resulted by one and two reason causes failure.

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The generalized gamma (GG) distribution is an important model that has proven to be very flexible in practice for modeling data from several areas. This model has important sub-models, such as the Weibull, gamma, lognormal, Nakagami-m distributions, among others. In this work, our main objective is to develop different estimation procedures for the unknown parameters of the generalized gamma distribution and related models (Nakagami-m and gamma), considering both classical and Bayesian approaches. Under the Bayesian approach, we provide in a simple way necessary and sufficient conditions to check whether or not objective priors lead proper posterior distributions for the Nakagami, gamma, and GG distributions. As a result, one can easily check if the obtained posterior is proper or improper directly looking at the behavior of the improper prior. These theorems are applied to different objective priors such as Jeffreyss rule, Jeffreys prior, maximal data information prior and reference priors. Simulation studies were conducted to investigate the performance of the Bayes estimators. Moreover, maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimators for the Nakagami and gamma distribution that have simple closed-form expressions are proposed Numerical results demonstrate that the MAP estimators outperform the existing estimation procedures and produce almost unbiased estimates for the fading parameter even for a small sample size. Finally, a new lifetime distribution that is expressed as a two-component mixture of the GG distribution is presented. / A distribuição gama Generalizada (GG) possui um papel fundamental para modelar dados em diversas áreas. Tal distribuição possui como casos particulares importantes distribuições, tais como, Weibull, Gama, lognormal, Nakagami-m, dentre outras. Nesta tese, tem-se como objetivo principal, considerando as abordagens clássica e Bayesiana, desenvolver diferentes procedimentos de estimação para os parâmetros da distribuição gama generalizada e de alguns dos seus casos particulares dentre eles as distribuições Nakagami-m e Gama. Do ponto de vista Bayesiano, iremos propor de forma simples, condições suficientes e necessárias para verificar se diferentes distribuições a priori não-informativas impróprias conduzem a distribuições posteriori próprias. Tais resultados são apresentados para as distribuições Nakagami-m, gama e gama generalizada. Assim, com a criação de novas prioris não-informativas, para tais modelos, futuros pesquisadores poderão utilizar nossos resultados para verificar se as distribuições a posteriori obtidas são impróprias ou não. Aplicações dos teoremas propostos são apresentados em diferentes prioris objetivas, tais como, a regra de Jeffreys, priori Jeffreys, priori maximal data information e prioris de referência. Iremos também realizar estudos de simulação para investigar a influência destas prioris nas estimativas a posteriori. Além disso, são propostos estimadores de máxima a posteriori em forma fechada para as distribuições Nakagami-m e Gama. Por meio de estudos de simulação verificamos que tais estimadores superam os procedimentos de estimação existentes e produzem estimativas quase não-viciadas para os parâmetros de interesse. Por fim, apresentamos uma nova distribuição obtida considerando um modelo de mistura de distribuições gama generalizada.

The dissertation considers construction of confidence intervals for a cumulative distribution function F(z) and its inverse at some fixed points z and u on the basis of an i.i.d. sample where the sample size is relatively small. The sample is modeled as having the flexible Generalized Gamma distribution with all three parameters being unknown. This approach can be viewed as an alternative to nonparametric techniques which do not specify distribution of X and lead to less efficient procedures. The confidence intervals are constructed by objective Bayesian methods and use the Jeffreys noninformative prior. Performance of the resulting confidence intervals is studied via Monte Carlo simulations and compared to the performance of nonparametric confidence intervals based on binomial proportion. In addition, techniques for change point detection are analyzed and further evaluated via Monte Carlo simulations. The effect of a change point on the interval estimators is studied both analytically and via Monte Carlo simulations.

在探討願付價格的條件評估法中一種常被使用的方法為“雙界二分選擇法”，並且一個隱含的假設是，所有研究對象皆願意支付一個合理的金額。然而對於某些商品，有些人也許願意支付任何金額；相對的，有些人可能不願意支付任何金額。分析願付價格時若不考慮這兩類極端反應者，則可能會得到一個偏誤的願付價格。本篇研究中，我們提出一個“混合模型”來處理此議題，其中以多元邏輯斯迴歸模型來描述不同反應者的比例，並以加速失敗時間模型來估計願意支付合理金額者其願付價格的分布。此外，我們以關於治療高血壓新藥之願付價格實例，作為實證分析。 / One commonly used method in contingent valuation (CV) survey for WTP (willingness-to-pay) is the “double-bound dichotomous choice approach” and an implicit assumption is that all study subjects are willing to pay a reasonable price. However, for certain goods, some subjects may be willing to pay any price for them, while some others may be unwilling to pay any price. Without considering these two types of the extreme respondents, a wrongly estimated WTP value will be obtained. We propose a “mixture model” to handle the issues in this study, in which a multinomial logistic model is taken to specify the proportions of different respondents and an accelerated failure time model is utilized to describe the distribution of WTP price for subjects who are willing to pay a reasonable price. In addition, an empirical example on WTP prices for a new hypertension treatment is provided to illustrate the proposed methods.

<p>Recently, the Conway-Maxwell Poisson (COM-Poisson) cure rate model has been proposed which includes as special cases some of the well-known cure rate models discussed in the literature. Data obtained from cancer clinical trials are often right censored and the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm can be efficiently used for the determination of the maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) of the model parameters based on right censored data.</p> <p>By assuming the lifetime distribution to be exponential, lognormal, Weibull, and gamma, the necessary steps of the EM algorithm are developed for the COM-Poisson cure rate model and some of its special cases. The inferential method is examined by means of an extensive simulation study. Model discrimination within the COM-Poisson family is carried out by likelihood ratio test as well as by information-based criteria. Finally, the proposed method is illustrated with a cutaneous melanoma data on cancer recurrence. As the lifetime distributions considered are not nested, it is not possible to carry out a formal statistical test to determine which among these provides an adequate fit to the data. For this reason, the wider class of generalized gamma distributions is considered which contains all of the above mentioned lifetime distributions as special cases. The steps of the EM algorithm are then developed for this general class of distributions and a simulation study is carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed estimation method. Model discrimination within the generalized gamma family is carried out by likelihood ratio test and information-based criteria. Finally, for the considered cutaneous melanoma data, the two-way flexibility of the COM-Poisson family and the generalized gamma family is utilized to carry out a two-way model discrimination to select a parsimonious competing cause distribution along with a suitable choice of a lifetime distribution that provides the best fit to the data.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Propor uma família de distribuição de probabilidade mais ampla e flexível é de grande importância em estudos estatísticos. Neste trabalho é utilizado um novo método de adicionar um parâmetro para uma distribuição contínua. A distribuição gama generalizada, que tem como casos especiais a distribuição Weibull, exponencial, gama, qui-quadrado, é usada como distribuição base. O novo modelo obtido tem quatro parâmetros e é chamado odd log-logística gama generalizada (OLLGG). Uma das características interessante do modelo OLLGG é o fato de apresentar bimodalidade. Outra proposta deste trabalho é introduzir um modelo de regressão chamado log-odd log-logística gama generalizada (LOLLGG) com base na GG (Stacy e Mihram, 1965). Este modelo pode ser muito útil, quando por exemplo, os dados amostrados possuem uma mistura de duas populações estatísticas. Outra vantagem da distribuição OLLGG consiste na capacidade de apresentar várias formas para a função de risco, crescente, decrescente, na forma de U e bimodal entre outras. Desta forma, são apresentadas em ambos os casos as expressões explícitas para os momentos, função geradora e desvios médios. Considerando dados nãocensurados e censurados de forma aleatória, as estimativas para os parâmetros de interesse, foram obtidas via método da máxima verossimilhança. Estudos de simulação, considerando diferentes valores para os parâmetros, porcentagens de censura e tamanhos amostrais foram conduzidos com o objetivo de verificar a flexibilidade da distribuição e a adequabilidade dos resíduos no modelo de regressão. Para ilustrar, são realizadas aplicações em conjuntos de dados reais. / Providing a wider and more flexible probability distribution family is of great importance in statistical studies. In this work a new method of adding a parameter to a continuous distribution is used. In this study the generalized gamma distribution (GG) is used as base distribution. The GG distribution has, as especial cases, Weibull distribution, exponential, gamma, chi-square, among others. For this motive, it is considered a flexible distribution in data modeling procedures. The new model obtained with four parameters is called log-odd log-logistic generalized gamma (OLLGG). One of the interesting characteristics of the OLLGG model is the fact that it presents bimodality. In addition, a regression model regression model called log-odd log-logistic generalized gamma (LOLLGG) based by GG (Stacy e Mihram, 1965) is introduced. This model can be very useful when, the sampled data has a mixture of two statistical populations. Another advantage of the OLLGG distribution is the ability to present various forms for the failing rate, as increasing, as decreasing, and the shapes of bathtub or U. Explicity expressions for the moments, generating functions, mean deviations are obtained. Considering non-censored and randomly censored data, the estimates for the parameters of interest were obtained using the maximum likelihood method. Simulation studies, considering different values for the parameters, percentages of censoring and sample sizes were done in order to verify the distribuition flexibility, and the residues distrbutuon in the regression model. To illustrate, some applications using real data sets are carried out.