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FNPOWER procedure

Estimates products of powers of two random variables, and calculates their variances and covariances (S.A. Gezan).

Options

PRINT = string token Output required (summary); default summ
CONSTANTVALUE = scalar Constant value for the function; default 0
POWERS = variate Specifies the powers of the two random variables
INDEXES = variate Specifies the locations of the random variables corresponding to the elements of the POWERS variate
CORRECTION = string token Whether to apply an additional correction to the variance of a product, using terms from the second-order approximation; default no

Parameters

ESTIMATES = variates Estimated values of the random variables
VCOVARIANCE = symmetric matrices Variance-covariance matrix of the random variable estimates
FUNCTIONESTIMATE = scalars Saves the estimated value of the function
SE = scalars Saves the standard error of the function estimate
NEWESTIMATES = variates Saves new vectors of estimates, including the estimated value of the function
NEWVCOVARIANCE = symmetric matrices Saves variance-covariance matrices for the new vestors (including the function estimate)

Description

FNPOWER estimates products of powers of two random variables. The estimated values of the random variables, from which the function estimate is calculated, are supplied (in a variate) by the ESTIMATES parameter. Their variances and covariances are supplied (in a symmetric matrix) by the VCOVARIANCE parameter. The positions of the random variables in the ESTIMATES variate are specified by the INDEXES option, and their powers are specified by the POWERS option (both in variates of length two).

The estimate can be saved by the FUNCTIONESTIMATE parameter, and its standard error can be saved by the SE option (both in scalars). The NEWESTIMATES parameter can save a new variate of estimates, containing the original ESTIMATES variate and then the function estimate inserted at the end. The corresponding variance-covariance matrix can be saved (in a symmetric matrix) by the NEWVCOVARIANCE parameter.

The variance and covariances are calculated using a first-order Taylor expension. You can obtain a more accurate value for the variance of an ordinary product by setting option CORRECTION=yes. (FNPOWER then uses a second-order Taylor expansion.)

Options: PRINT, CONSTANTVALUE, POWERS, INDEXES, CORRECTION.

Parameters: ESTIMATES, VCOVARIANCE, FUNCTIONESTIMATE, SE, NEWESTIMATES, NEWVCOVARIANCE.

Method

The power function w, of the random variables f and g, is defined by the expression:

w = fp × gq

for the real-valued coefficients p and q (defined by the POWERS parameter). The functions that can be defined thus include:

    single power w = fp (i.e. q = 0),
    square root w = √f (i.e. p = 0.5, q = 0),
    product w = f × g (i.e. p = q = 1),
    ratio w = f / g (i.e. p = q = -1).

The variances and covariances of the function are approximated using a first-order Taylor series expansion (i.e. the delta method); see Kendall & Stuart (1963). For example the expressions for the variance of the product and ratio functions are as follows:

    product var(w) = var(f × g)
  = E(f)2 × var(g) + E(g)2 × var(f) + 2 × E(f) × E(g) × cov(f,g)
    ratio var(w) = var(f / g)
  = (1 / E(g)2) × { var(f) – 2 × E(w) × cov(f,g) + E(w)2 × var(g) }

The quality of this approximation depends on the linearity of the function near the estimate. For a product, you can request an additional correction for the product function based on a second-order Taylor expansion. A correction factor cf is then added to the expression above, where

cf = var(f) × var(g) + cov(f,g)2.

Reference

Kendall, M. & Stuart, A. (1963). The Advanced Theory of Statistics, Volume 1. Griffin, London.

See also

Procedures: FNCORRELATION, FNLINEAR.

Commands for: Calculations and manipulation.

Example

CAPTION 'FNPOWER example'; STYLE=meta
" Reading data"
VARIATE [VALUES=4.01,19.63,13.65] means
SYMMETRICMATRIX [ROWS=3; VALUES=150.40,-31.85,161.13,0.93,-9.32,23.31] vcov
PRINT   means,vcov
FNPOWER [PRINT=summary; CONSTANTVALUE=0; POWERS=!(1,-1); INDEXES=!(1,3)]\
        ESTIMATES=means; VCOVARIANCE=vcov; FUNCTIONESTIMATE=est;\
        SE=se; NEWESTIMATES=newmeans; NEWVCOVARIANCE=newvcov
PRINT   est,se
&       newmeans,newvcov
FNPOWER [PRINT=summary; CONSTANTVALUE=0; POWERS=!(1,-1); INDEXES=!(1,3);\
        CORRECTION=yes] ESTIMATES=means; VCOVARIANCE=vcov;\
        FUNCTIONESTIMATE=est; SE=se;\
        NEWESTIMATES=newmeans; NEWVCOVARIANCE=newvcov
PRINT   est,se
&       newmeans,newvcov

Updated on March 8, 2019

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