boolean3 (version 3.1.6)

boolean: Fit a Boolean Model

Description

Performs a fit of a boolean model as specified by boolprep.

Usage

boolean(obj, method = "nlminb", start = NULL, ...)

Arguments

obj

boolean model object as produced by boolprep.

method

string (or string vector) specifying the method(s) of estimation. The specified method(s) should be one of those available from the optimx or optim functions. A genetic algorithm is available from genoud (method="genoud"). method defaults to "nlminb".

start

numeric vector specifying starting values for each parameter in the model. Must have a length equal to the number of parameters being estimated. Defaults to NULL, which instructs boolean to estimate ``sensible'' starting values (currently the coefficient values estimated from a glm model).

...

additional arguments to be passed on to optimizers. Each optimizer provides numerous optional parameters to help improve estimation results. See the provided examples and the documentation for the estimation method of interest.

Value

A boolean model object containing the fit results (detailed results available in the model.fit slot).

Details

boolean performs a fit of a boolean model as specified by boolprep.

References

Braumoeller, Bear F. (2003) ``Causal Complexity and the Study of Politics.'' Political Analysis 11(3): 209--233.

See Also

See boolprep for model setup, boolean the snow package for details on clustering (useful when using genoud). See optimx, optim, and genoud for detailed documentation on the estimation methods available.

Examples

## Generate some fake data
require(mvtnorm)
set.seed(12345)
N  <- 2000
Df <- cbind(1, rmvnorm(N, mean=rep(0, 5)))

## Set coefficients
beta.a <- c(-2.00, 0.33, 0.66, 1.00)
beta.b <- c(0.00, 1.50, -0.25)

## Generate path probabilities following a normal model.
y.a <- as.vector(pnorm(tcrossprod(beta.a, Df[, 1:4])))
y.b <- as.vector(pnorm(tcrossprod(beta.b, Df[, c(1, 5, 6)])))

## AND and OR-model
or <- function(x, y) { x + y - x * y }
and <- function(x, y) { x * y }
y.star.OR  <- or(y.a, y.b)
y.star.AND <- and(y.a, y.b)

## Observed responses
y.OR <- rbinom(N, 1, y.star.OR)
y.AND <- rbinom(N, 1, y.star.AND)

## Set up data.frame for estimation
Df <- cbind(1, Df)
Df <- as.data.frame(Df)
Df[,1] <- y.OR
Df[,2] <- y.AND
names(Df) <- c("y.OR", "y.AND", "x1", "x2", "x3", "x4", "x5")

## Before estimating, boolean models need to be specified using the
## boolprep function.

## OR model, specified to use a probit link for each causal path. This
## matches the data generating process above.
mod.OR <- boolprep(y.OR ~ (a | b), a ~ x1 + x2 + x3, b ~ x4 + x5,
                   data = Df, family=list(binomial("probit")))

## Fit a model using the nlminb optimizer (the default). Verbose output is
## requested by specifying trace=1 as a control parameter.
(fit <- boolean(mod.OR, method="nlminb", control=list(trace=1)))

## Multiple optimizers can be specified in a single call to boolean. Here
## we fit with the nlm and nlminb optimizers.
(fit1 <- boolean(mod.OR, method=c("nlm", "nlminb")))

## The summary function will report the detailed results for each
## optimization method.
summary(fit1)