Estimation and prediction for spatial generalized linear mixed models using high order Laplace approximation

Evangelos Evangelou, Zhengyuan Zhu, Richard L Smith

OAI: oai:purehost.bath.ac.uk:openaire_cris_publications/bd5fcca8-007d-4765-ac09-30917955a027 • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jspi.2011.05.008

Estimation and prediction in generalized linear mixed models are often hampered by intractable high dimensional integrals. This paper provides a framework to solve this intractability, using asymptotic expansions when the number of random effects is large. To that end, we first derive a modified Laplace approximation when the number of random effects is increasing at a lower rate than the sample size. Second, we propose an approximate likelihood method based on the asymptotic expansion of the log-likelihood using the modified Laplace approximation which is maximized using a quasi- Newton algorithm. Finally, we define the second order plug-in predictive density based on a similar expansion to the plug-in predictive density and show that it is a normal density. Our simulations show that in comparison to other approximations, our method has better performance. Our methods are readily applied to non-Gaussian spatial data and as an example, the analysis of the rhizoctonia root rot data is presented.

spatial statistics maximum likelihood estimation predictive inference Laplace approximation generalized linear mixed models