Keele L. Semiparametric Regression for the Social Sciences

ISBN: 0470319917Publisher: WileyYear: 2008Pages: 232Language: English |
Smoothing methods have been little used within the social sciences. Semiparametric Regression for the Social Sciences sets out to address this situation by providing an accessible introduction to the subject, filled with examples drawn from the social and political sciences. Readers are introduced to the principles of nonparametric smoothing and to a wide variety of smoothing methods. The author also explains how smoothing methods can be incorporated into parametric linear and generalized linear models. The use of smoothers with these standard statistical models allows the estimation of more flexible functional forms whilst retaining the interpretability of parametric models. The full potential of these techniques is highlighted via the use of detailed empirical examples drawn from the social and political sciences. Each chapter features exercises to aid in the understanding of the methods and applications. All examples in the book were estimated in R. The book contains an appendix with R commands to introduce readers to estimating these models in R. All the R code for the examples in the book are available from the author's website and the publishers website.