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Measuring the quality of life through Markov reward processes: Analysis and inference
Author(s) -
D'Amico Guglielmo
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
environmetrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.68
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-095X
pISSN - 1180-4009
DOI - 10.1002/env.993
Subject(s) - markov chain , estimator , inference , nonparametric statistics , index (typography) , econometrics , computer science , statistics , mathematics , markov model , asymptotic distribution , normality , quality (philosophy) , artificial intelligence , philosophy , epistemology , world wide web
In this paper, the time evolution of the quality of life of a person is studied using Markov chains. A new index measuring the quality of life is proposed. It is based on Markov reward processes which turn out to be a useful tool in the modelling of the accumulated quality of life. Later on, a nonparametric estimator of the index is presented. Its asymptotic properties are established and as a consequence of the asymptotic normality the confidence sets are obtained. A numerical example illustrates the results. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.