A BAYESIAN APPROACH TO PARAMETER ESTIMATION IN BINARY LOGIT AND PROBIT MODELS

Tektas D., Guenay S.

HACETTEPE JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS, vol.37, no.2, pp.167-176, 2008 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 37 Issue: 2
  • Publication Date: 2008
  • Journal Name: HACETTEPE JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
  • Page Numbers: pp.167-176
  • Keywords: Binary probit model, Binary logit model, Bayesian analysis, Albert and Chib approach, Latent data, Gibbs sampling, Data augmentation
  • Hacettepe University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

In the areas of statistics and econometrics the analysis of binary and polychotomous response data is widely used. In classical statistics, the maximum likelihood method is used to model this data and inferences about the model are based on the associated asymptotic theory. However, the inferences based on the classical approach are not accurate if the sample size is small. J.H. Albert and S. Chib (Bayesian Analysis of Binary and Polychotomous Response Data, J. American Statistical Association 422, 669-679, 1993) proposed a Bayesian method to model categorical response data. In this method Gibbs sampling and the data augmentation algorithm are used together to model the data. In this article, Albert and Chib's approach is used to estimate the parameters in the logit and probit models. Furthermore, the maximum likelihood and ordinary least-squares methods axe discussed briefly, and a simple example is presented to compare these three methods.