fitdist: Fit distributions to elicited probabilities

Description

Takes elicited probabilities as inputs, and fits parametric distributions using least squares on the cumulative distribution function. If separate judgements from multiple experts are specified, the function will fit one set of distributions per expert.

Usage

fitdist(vals, probs, lower = -Inf, upper = Inf, weights = 1, tdf = 3)

Arguments

vals

A vector of elicited values for one expert, or a matrix of elicited values for multiple experts (one column per expert). Note that the an elicited judgement about X should be of the form P(X

probs

A vector of elicited probabilies for one expert, or a matrix of elicited values for multiple experts (one column per expert). A single vector can be used if the probabilities are the same for each expert. For each expert, the smallest elicited probability must be less than 0.4, and the largest elicited probability must be greater than 0.6.

lower

A single lower limit for the uncertain quantity X, or a vector of different lower limits for each expert. Specifying a lower limit will allow the fitting of distributions bounded below.

upper

A single upper limit for the uncertain quantity X, or a vector of different lower limits for each expert. Specifying both a lower limit and an upper limit will allow the fitting of a Beta distribution.

weights

A vector or matrix of weights corresponding to vals if weighted least squares is to be used in the parameter fitting.

tdf

The number of degrees of freedom to be used when fitting a t-distribution.

Value

Normal: Parameters of the fitted normal distributions.
Student.t: Parameters of the fitted t distributions. Note that (X - location) / scale has a standard t distribution. The degrees of freedom is not fitted; it is specified as an argument to fitdist.
Gamma: Parameters of the fitted gamma distributions. Note that E(X) = shape / rate.
Log.normal: Parameters of the fitted log normal distributions: the mean and standard deviation of log X.
Log.Student.t: Parameters of the fitted log student t distributions. Note that (log(X) - location) / scale has a standard t distribution. The degrees of freedom is not fitted; it is specified as an argument to fitdist.
Beta: Parameters of the fitted beta distributions. X is scaled to the interval [0,1] via Y = (X - lower)/(upper - lower), and E(Y) = shape1 / (shape1 + shape2).
ssq: Sum of squared errors for each fitted distribution and expert. Each error is the different between an elicited cumulative probability and the corresponding fitted cumulative probability.
best.fitting: The best fitting distribution for each expert, determined by the smallest sum of squared errors.
vals: The elicited values used to fit the distributions.
probs: The elicited probabilities used to fit the distributions.
limits: The lower and upper limits specified by each expert (+/- Inf if not specified).

Examples

Run this code

## Not run: 
# # One expert, with elicited probabilities
# # P(X<20)=0.25, P(X<30)=0.5, P(X<50)=0.75
# # and X>0.
# v <- c(20,30,50)
# p <- c(0.25,0.5,0.75)
# fitdist(vals=v, probs=p, lower=0)
# 
# # Now add a second expert, with elicited probabilities
# # P(X<55)=0.25, P(X<60=0.5), P(X<70)=0.75
# v <- matrix(c(20,30,50,55,60,70),3,2)
# p <- c(0.25,0.5,0.75)
# fitdist(vals=v, probs=p, lower=0)
# 
# # Two experts, different elicited quantiles and limits.
# # Expert 1: P(X<50)=0.25, P(X<60=0.5), P(X<65)=0.75, and provides bounds 10<X<100
# # Expert 2: P(X<40)=0.33, P(X<50=0.5), P(X<60)=0.66, and provides bounds 0<X
# v <- matrix(c(50,60,65,40,50,60),3,2)
# p <- matrix(c(.25,.5,.75,.33,.5,.66),3,2)
# l <- c(10,0)
# u <- c(100, Inf)
# fitdist(vals=v, probs=p, lower=l, upper=u)
# ## End(Not run)

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