Unobserved Variables

Models and Misunderstandings

By: David J. Bartholomew

Write A Review

eText | 7 September 2013

At a Glance

Format
ePUB

eText

$84.99

or 4 interest-free payments of $21.25 with

Instant online reading in your Booktopia eTextbook Library *

Why choose an eTextbook?

Instant Access *

Purchase and read your book immediately

Read Aloud

Listen and follow along as Bookshelf reads to you

Study Tools

Built-in study tools like highlights and more

* eTextbooks are not downloadable to your eReader or an app and can be accessed via web browsers only. You must be connected to the internet and have no technical issues with your device or browser that could prevent the eTextbook from operating.

The classical statistical problem typically involves a probability distribution which depends on a number of unknown parameters. The form of the distribution may be known, partially or completely, and inferences have to be made on the basis of a sample of observations drawn from the distribution; often, but not necessarily, a random sample. This brief deals with problems where some of the sample members are either unobserved or hypothetical, the latter category being introduced as a means of better explaining the data. Sometimes we are interested in these kinds of variable themselves and sometimes in the parameters of the distribution. Many problems that can be cast into this form are treated. These include: missing data, mixtures, latent variables, time series and social measurement problems. Although all can be accommodated within a Bayesian framework, most are best treated from first principles.