3
$\begingroup$

G. Monette and J. Fox provide in these slides a framework for the Type II Analysis of Variance/Deviance tests in terms of conditional hypothesis. My questions are:

  • In this frequentist approach, the "conditional hypothesis" $L_1\beta=0 \mid L_2\beta=0$ is only symbolic (isn't it?). Is there a Bayesian analogue to this approach such as inference on $L_1 \beta$ under the posterior distribution of $\beta$ taken conditionally to $L_2 \beta =0$ ?

  • Monette & Fox rigorously define the conditional hypothesis as a classical hypothesis $L_{1\mid 2}\beta =0$ for a certain matrix $L_{1\mid 2}$ but this matrix depends on the estimated asymptotic covariance matrix of the parameters $\beta$. That sounds strange. Does it actually depends on the true asymptotic covariance matrix and then $L_{1\mid 2}$ is only an estimate of a theoretical matrix ? Even for the true asymptotic covariance that sounds strange because it still depends on the choice of the estimating method.

In fact I have never seen the notion of conditional hypothesis before, is it presented in some textbooks ?

Update1

Still sick today but here are some thoughts. Consider a classical linear model $y = X\beta+\sigma\epsilon$ and the Jeffreys prior. Then the posterior distribution of $(\beta \mid \sigma)$ is ${\cal N}(\hat\beta, V)$ where $V$ is the asymptotic covariance matrix of the least-squares estimator $\hat\beta$, or (I do not remember), $V$ is this matrix up to a factor close to $1$. Then it is easy to see that $(L_1 \beta \mid L_2\beta=0)$ has the distribution of $L_{1 \mid 2} \beta$ under the conditional posterior distribution $(\beta \mid \sigma)$, where $L_{1 \mid 2}$ is a $V$-orthogonal complement as defined in Monette & Fox's slides. And the Wald statistic $Z_{1|2}$ should be related to the norm of $L_{1 \mid 2} \beta$.

For more general models the approach should asymptotically coincide with the Bayesian approach when $\hat\beta$ is taken to be the maximum-likelihood estimate.

Too sick to continue...

Update2

I really wonder about whether this an old or a recent approach. As shown in my answer to myself here, this is not the way used by SAS. But the "old" anova() R function uses this approach. Indeed, for a generalized least-squares model such as

glsfit <- gls(value ~ group*variable, data=ldat,  
            correlation=corSymm(form= ~ 1 | id),
            weights=varIdent(form = ~1 | variable))

the type II hypothesis Wald F-test statistic of the variable factor is provided by:

> anova(glsfit)
Denom. DF: 45 
               numDF   F-value p-value
(Intercept)        1 1401.9971  <.0001
group              4    2.3793  0.0658
variable           2   79.5687  <.0001
group:variable     8    1.4759  0.1929

(and for the group factor one has to exchange the order of the factors:

glsfit.reverse <- update(glsfit, model = value ~ variable*group)
anova(glsfit.reverse)

)

Or is it a new theoretical justification of an old approach ?..

$\endgroup$
2
  • $\begingroup$ @Zen No, see my update. This is really close to the Bayesian interpretation. $\endgroup$ Mar 23, 2013 at 10:15
  • $\begingroup$ Good to know, Stéphane. Take care. $\endgroup$
    – Zen
    Mar 23, 2013 at 12:33

1 Answer 1

-1
$\begingroup$
  • Yes, this is a slight and common abuse of notation. Recall that in Bayesian statistics there are no point hypothesis under a continuous model since they have probability $0$.

  • No, this is incorrect. The matrix $L_{1\vert 2}$ depends only on $L_1$ and $L_2$, see slide 5. Only the asymptotic distribution of the estimators of $\beta$ depends on the covariance matrix. This is a classical result.

The basic idea in the slides is more related to nested models, although they use a conditioning notation. See the following discussion for a distinction between notation and conditioning

http://normaldeviate.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/double-misunderstandings-about-p-values/

$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ 1) Yes but we can do Bayesian inference about $L_1\beta$, not necessarily a hypothesis test. You do not answer my question: would it be analogue ? For instance with a noninformative prior, if we would look whether the credibility interval contains $0$, would it be similar to the frequentist hypothesis test ?. 2) Slide 5 precisely says that $L_{1\mid 2}$ is defined with the help of $V$. $\endgroup$ Mar 23, 2013 at 7:26

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.