Statistical implementations of agent-based demographic models

International Statistical Review
By: , and 

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Abstract

A variety of demographic statistical models exist for studying population dynamics when individuals can be tracked over time. In cases where data are missing due to imperfect detection of individuals, the associated measurement error can be accommodated under certain study designs (e.g., those that involve multiple surveys or replication). However, the interaction of the measurement error and the underlying dynamic process can complicate the implementation of statistical agent-based models (ABMs) for population demography. In a Bayesian setting, traditional computational algorithms for fitting hierarchical demographic models can be prohibitively cumbersome to construct. Thus, we discuss a variety of approaches for fitting statistical ABMs to data and demonstrate how to use multistage recursive Bayesian computing and statistical emulators to fit models in such a way that alleviates the need to have analytical knowledge of the ABM likelihood. Using two examples, a demographic model for survival and a compartment model for COVID-19, we illustrate statistical procedures for implementing ABMs. The approaches we describe are intuitive and accessible for practitioners and can be parallelized easily for additional computational eciency.
Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Statistical implementations of agent-based demographic models
Series title International Statistical Review
DOI 10.1111/insr.12399
Volume 88
Issue 2
Year Published 2020
Language English
Publisher Wiley
Contributing office(s) Coop Res Unit Seattle
Description 21 p,
First page 441
Last page 461
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