Variable Selection for Discrete Competing Risks Models

Möst, Stephanie; Pößnecker, Wolfgang und Tutz, Gerhard (28. May 2014): Variable Selection for Discrete Competing Risks Models. Department of Statistics: Technical Reports, No.161

Abstract

In competing risks models one distinguishes between several distinct target events that end duration. Since the effects of covariates are specific to the target events, the model contains a large number of parameters even when the number of predictors is not very large. Therefore, reduction of the complexity of the model, in particular by deletion of all irrelevant predictors, is of major importance. A selection procedure is proposed that aims at selection of variables rather than parameters. It is based on penalization techniques and reduces the complexity of the model more efficiently than techniques that penalize parameters separately. An algorithm is proposed that yields stable estimates. We consider reduction of complexity by variable selection in two applications, the evolution of congressional careers of members of the US congress and the duration of unemployment.

• Item Type: Paper
• Keywords: Competing risks, event history, discrete survival, penalized likelihood, regularization, variable selection
• Faculties: Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics; Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics > Statistics; Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics > Statistics > Technical Reports
• Subjects: 500 Science > 510 Mathematics
• Language: English