Modeling heterogeneity in ranked responses by nonparametric maximum likelihood : How do Europeans get their scientific knowledge?

Francis, Brian and Dittrich, Regina and Hatzinger, Reinhold (2010) Modeling heterogeneity in ranked responses by nonparametric maximum likelihood : How do Europeans get their scientific knowledge? Annals of Applied Statistics, 4 (4). pp. 2181-2202. ISSN 1941-7330

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Abstract

This paper is motivated by a Eurobarometer survey on science knowledge. As part of the survey, respondents were asked to rank sources of science information in order of importance. The official statistical analysis of these data however failed to use the complete ranking information. We instead propose a method which treats ranked data as a set of paired comparisons which places the problem in the standard framework of generalized linear models and also allows respondent covariates to be incorporated. An extension is proposed to allow for heterogeneity in the ranked responses. The resulting model uses a nonparametric formulation of the random effects structure, fitted using the EM algorithm. Each mass point is multivalued, with a parameter for each item. The resultant model is equivalent to a covariate latent class model, where the latent class profiles are provided by the mass point components and the covariates act on the class profiles. This provides an alternative interpretation of the fitted model. The approach is also suitable for paired comparison data.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Annals of Applied Statistics
Additional Information:
Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/10-AOAS366 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org)
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2600/2613
Subjects:
?? ranked datarandom effectsnpml paired comparisons bradley–terry model latent class analysis mixture of expertseurobarometerstatistics and probabilitymodelling and simulationstatistics, probability and uncertainty ??
ID Code:
49950
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
21 Sep 2011 10:19
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
10 Dec 2024 00:20