binom2.rho {VGAM}R Documentation

Bivariate Probit Model

Description

Fits a bivariate probit model to two binary responses.

Usage

binom2.rho(lrho = "rhobit", erho=list(),
           init.rho = 0.4, zero = 3, exchangeable = FALSE)

Arguments

lrho Link function applied to the rho association parameter. See Links for more choices.
erho List. Extra argument for the lrho link. See earg in Links for general information.
init.rho Initial value for rho. This should lie between -1 and 1.
zero Which linear/additive predictor is modelled as an intercept only? A NULL means none.
exchangeable Logical. If TRUE, the two marginal probabilities are constrained to be equal.

Details

The bivariate probit model was one of the earliest regression models to handle two binary responses jointly. It has a probit link for each of the two marginal probabilities, and models the association between the responses by the rho parameter of a standard bivariate normal distribution (with zero means and unit variances). One can think of the joint probabilities being Phi(eta1,eta2;rho) where Phi is the cumulative distribution function of a standard bivariate normal distribution with correlation parameter rho.

The bivariate probit model should not be confused with a bivariate logit model with a probit link (see binom2.or). The latter uses the odds ratio to quantify the association. Actually, the bivariate logit model is recommended over the bivariate probit model because the odds ratio is a more natural way of measuring the association between two binary responses.

Value

An object of class "vglmff" (see vglmff-class). The object is used by modelling functions such as vglm, and vgam.
When fitted, the fitted.values slot of the object contains the four joint probabilities, labelled as (Y1,Y2) = (0,0), (0,1), (1,0), (1,1), respectively.

Note

The response should be either a 4-column matrix of counts (whose columns correspond to (Y1,Y2) = (0,0), (0,1), (1,0), (1,1) respectively), or a two-column matrix where each column has two distinct values.

By default, a constant rho is fitted because zero=3. Set zero=NULL if you want the rho parameter to be modelled as a function of the explanatory variables. The value rho lies in the interval (-1,1), therefore a rhobit link is default.

If converge problems occur, try setting init.rho to some value, e.g., a negative number such as -0.5.

Author(s)

Thomas W. Yee

References

Ashford, J. R. and Sowden, R. R. (1970) Multi-variate probit analysis. Biometrics, 26, 535–546.

Documentation accompanying the VGAM package at http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~yee contains further information and examples.

See Also

binom2.or, loglinb2, coalminers, binomialff, rhobit, fisherz.

Examples

data(coalminers)
coalminers = transform(coalminers, Age = (age - 42) / 5)
fit = vglm(cbind(nBnW,nBW,BnW,BW) ~ Age, binom2.rho, coalminers)
summary(fit)
coef(fit, matrix=TRUE)

[Package VGAM version 0.7-7 Index]