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Regression analysis of count data. 2nd ed

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 Regression Analysis of Count Data
Second Edition

A. Colin Cameron Pravin K. Trivedi

Department of Economics Department of Economics
University of California Indiana University
Davis, CA 95616, U.S.A. Bloomington, IN 47405, U.S.A.
Telephone: 530-752–8396 Telephone: 812-855-3567
Fax: 530-752-9382 Fax: 812-855-3736
E-mail: accameron@ucdavis.edu E-mail: trivedi@indiana.edu

April 2012

Copyright °c 2012 by A. Colin Cameron and Pravin K. Trivedi.

All rights reserved.
Please do not copy without permission from the authors.
Contents

List of Figures ix

List of Tables xii

Preface xvii

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Poisson Distribution and its Characterizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Poisson Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4 Overview of Major Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.5 Bibliographic Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

2 Model Specification and Estimation 21

2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.2 Example and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.3 Likelihood-Based Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.4 Generalized Linear Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.5 Moment-Based Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.6 Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.7 Robust Inference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
2.8 Derivation of Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
2.9 Bibliographic Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
2.10 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

3 Basic Count Regression 67

3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.2 Poisson MLE, QMLE, and GLM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.3 Negative Binomial MLE and QGPMLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
3.4 Overdispersion Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
3.5 Use of Regression Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

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 3.6 Ordered and Other Discrete-Outcome Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
3.7 Other Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
3.8 Iteratively Reweighted Least Squares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
3.9 Bibliographic Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
3.10 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

4 Generalized Count Regression 107

4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.2 Mixture Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4.3 Truncated Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
4.4 Censored Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
4.5 Hurdle Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
4.6 Zero-Inflated Count Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
4.7 Hierarchical Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
4.8 Finite Mixtures and Latent Class Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
4.9 Count Models with Cross-sectional Dependence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
4.10 Models Based on Waiting Time Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
4.11 Katz, Double Poisson and Generalized Poisson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
4.12 Derivations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
4.13 Bibliographic Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
4.14 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

5 Model Evaluation and Testing 171

5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
5.2 Residual Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
5.3 Goodness of Fit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
5.4 Discriminating among Nonnested Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
5.5 Tests for Overdispersion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
5.6 Conditional Moment Specification Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
5.7 Derivations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
5.8 Bibliographic Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
5.9 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

6 Empirical illustrations 217

6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
6.2 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
6.3 Analysis of Demand for Health Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
6.4 Analysis of Recreational Trips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
6.5 Analysis of Fertility Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
6.6 Model Selection Criteria: A Digression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

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 6.7 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
6.8 Bibliographic Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
6.9 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

7 Time Series Data 253

7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
7.2 Models for Time Series Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
7.3 Static Count Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
7.4 Serially Correlated Heterogeneity Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
7.5 Autoregressive Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
7.6 Integer-valued ARMA models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
7.7 State Space Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
7.8 Hidden Markov Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
7.9 Dynamic Ordered Probit Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
7.10 Discrete ARMA Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
7.11 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
7.12 Derivations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
7.13 Bibliographic Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
7.14 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

8 Multivariate Data 293

8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
8.2 Characterizing and Generating Dependence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
8.3 Sources of Dependence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
8.4 Multivariate Count Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
8.5 Copula-based Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
8.6 Moment-based Estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
8.7 Testing for Dependence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
8.8 Mixed Multivariate Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
8.9 Empirical Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
8.10 Derivations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
8.11 Bibliographic Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

9 Longitudinal Data 327

9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
9.2 Models for Longitudinal Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
9.3 Population Averaged Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
9.4 Fixed Effects Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
9.5 Random Effects Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
9.6 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
9.7 Specification Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

v
 9.8 Dynamic Longitudinal Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
9.9 Endogenous Regressors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
9.10 More Flexible Functional Forms for Longitudinal Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
9.11 Derivations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
9.12 Bibliographic Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
9.13 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

10 Endogenous Regressors and Selection 369

10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
10.2 Endogeneity in Recursive Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
10.3 Selection Models for Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
10.4 Moment-based Methods for Endogenous Regressors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
10.5 Example: Doctor Visits and Health Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
10.6 Selection and Endogeneity in Two-Part Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
10.7 Alternative Sampling Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
10.8 Bibliographic Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

11 Flexible Methods for Counts 395

11.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
11.2 Flexible Distributions using Series Expansions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
11.3 Flexible Models of the Conditional Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
11.4 Flexible Models of the Conditional Variance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
11.5 Quantile Regression for Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
11.6 Nonparametric Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
11.7 Efficient Moment-Based Estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
11.8 Analysis of Patent Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
11.9 Derivations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
11.10Bibliographic Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

12 Bayesian Methods for Counts 429

12.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
12.2 Bayesian Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
12.3 Poisson Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
12.4 Markov chain Monte Carlo methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
12.5 Count models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
12.6 Roy Model for Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
12.7 Bibliographic Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

13 Measurement Errors 447

13.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
13.2 Measurement Errors in Regressors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448

vi
 13.3 Measurement Errors in Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
13.4 Measurement Errors in Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
13.5 Underreported Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
13.6 Underreported and Overrereported Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
13.7 Simulation Example: Poisson with Mismeasured Regressor . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
13.8 Derivations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
13.9 Bibliographic Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476
13.10Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476

A Notation and acronyms 479

B Functions, distributions and moments 483

B.1 Gamma function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
B.2 Some distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
B.3 Moments of truncated Poisson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486

C Software 487

References 489

vii
 xiii

Preface
Since Regression Analysis of Count Data was published in 1998 significant new research has
contributed to the range and scope of count data models. This growth is reflected in many new
journal articles, fuller coverage in textbooks, and wide interest in and availability of software for
handling count data models. These developments (to which we have also contributed) have moti-
vated us to revise and expand the first edition. Like the first edition, the current version reflects an
orientation towards practical data analysis.
The revisions in this edition have affected all chapters. First, we have corrected the typograph-
ical and other errors in the first edition, improved the graphics throughout, and where appropriate
we have provided a cleaner and simpler exposition. Second we have revised and relocated material
that seemed better placed in a different location, mostly within the same chapter though occasion-
ally in a different chapter. For example material in Chapter 4 (generalized count models), chapter 8
(multivariate counts), and Chapter 13 (measurement errors) has been pruned and rearranged so the
more mainstream topics appear earlier while the more marginal topics have disappeared altogether.
For similar reasons bootstrap inference has moved from Chapter 5 to Chapter 2. Our goal here has
been to improve quality of synthesis and accessibility of material to the reader. Third, the final few
chapters have been reordered. Chapter 10 (endogeneity and selection) has moved up from Chapter
11. It replaces the measurement error chapter which now appears as chapter 13. Chapter 11 now
covers flexible parametric models (previously Chapter 12). And the current Chapter 12, which cov-
ers Bayesian methods, is a new addition. Fourth, we have removed material that was of marginal
interest and replaced it with material of potentially greater interest, especially to practitioners. For
example, as barriers to implementation of more computer-intensive methods have come down, we
have liberally sprinkled illustrations of simulation-based methods throughout the book. Fifth, bib-
liographic notes at the end of every chapter have been refreshed to include newer references and
topics. Sixth, we have developed an almost complete set of computer code for the examples in this
book.
The first edition has been expanded by about 25 per cent. This expansion reflects the ad-
dition of a new chapter 12 on Bayesian methods as well as significant additions to most other
chapters. Chapter 2 has new sections on robust inference and empirical likelihood, and material
on the bootstrap and generalized estimating equations now appears in this chapter. In Chapter 3
and throughout the book, the term pseudo-ML has been changed to quasi-ML and robust standard
errors are computed using the robust sandwich form. Chapter 4 improves the coverage and dis-
cussion of how many alternative count models relate to each other. Censored, truncated, hurdle,
zero-inflated and, especially, finite mixture models are now covered in greater depth, with a more
uniform notation, and hierarchical count models and models with cross-sectional and spatial de-
pendence have been newly added. Chapter 5 moves up presentation of methods for discrimination
among nonnested models. Chapter 6 adds a new empirical example of fertility data that poses a
fresh challenge to count data modelers. The time series coverage in Chapter 7 has been expanded
to include more recently developed models, and there is some rearrangement so that the most often
used models appear first. The coverage of multivariate count models in Chapter 8 uses a broader
 xiv

and more modern range of dependence concepts, and provides a lengthy treatment of parametric
copula-based models. The survey of count data panel models in Chapter 9 gives greater empha-
sis to moment-based approaches and has a more comprehensive coverage of dynamic panels, the
role of initial conditions, conditionally correlated random effects, flexible functional forms and
specification tests. Chapter 10 provides an improved exposition of models with endogeneity and
selection, including consideration of latent factor and two-part models as well as simulation-based
inference and control function estimators. A major new topic in Chapter 11 is quantile regres-
sion models for count data, and the coverage of semiparametric and nonparametric methods has
been considerably expanded and updated. As previously mentioned, the new Chapter 12 covers
Bayesian analysis of count model, providing an entry to the world of Markov chain Monte Carlo
analysis of count models. Finally, Chapter 13 provides a comprehensive survey of measurement
error models for count data. As a result of the expanded coverage of old topics and appearance of
new ones, the bibliography is now significantly larger and includes more than a hundred additional
new references.
To emphasize its empirical orientation the book has added many new examples based on real
data. These examples are scattered throughout the book, especially in Chapters 6-12. In addition
we have a number of examples based on simulated data. Researchers, instructors and students
interested in replicating our results can obtain all the data and computer programs used to produce
the results given in this book via Internet from our respective personal web sites.
This revised and expanded second edition draws extensively from our jointly authored research
undertaken with Partha Deb, Jie Qun Guo, Judex Hyppolite, Tong Li, Doug Miller, Murat Munkin,
and David Zimmer. Jeff Racine provided valuable advice for Chapter 11. We thank them all.

A. Colin Cameron
Davis, CA

Pravin K. Trivedi
Bloomington, IN

April 2012

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