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Confidence intervals for variance component ratios in unbalanced linear mixed models
Author(s) -
Fernando Mahesh N.,
Butler Ronald W.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of statistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.359
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1467-9469
pISSN - 0303-6898
DOI - 10.1111/sjos.12428
Subject(s) - mathematics , statistics , confidence interval , variance components , restricted maximum likelihood , variance (accounting) , statistic , likelihood ratio test , confidence distribution , component (thermodynamics) , maximum likelihood , wald test , scan statistic , econometrics , statistical hypothesis testing , physics , accounting , business , thermodynamics
Methods for constructing confidence intervals for variance component ratios in general unbalanced mixed models are developed. The methods are based on inverting the distribution of the signed root of the log‐likelihood ratio statistic constructed from either the restricted maximum likelihood or the full likelihood. As this distribution is intractable, the inversion is rather based on using a saddlepoint approximation to its distribution. Apart from Wald's exact method, the resulting intervals are unrivalled in terms of achieving accuracy in overall coverage, underage, and overage. Issues related to the proper “reference set” with which to judge the coverage as well as issues connected to variance ratios being nonnegative with lower bound 0 are addressed. Applications include an unbalanced nested design and an unbalanced crossed design.