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Calibration tests for count data

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  • Wei Wei
  • Leonhard Held

Abstract

Calibration, the statistical consistency of forecast distributions and observations, is a central requirement for probabilistic predictions. Calibration of continuous forecasts has been widely discussed, and significance tests are commonly used to detect whether a prediction model is miscalibrated. However, calibration tests for discrete forecasts are rare, especially for distributions with unlimited support. In this paper, we propose two types of calibration tests for count data: tests based on conditional exceedance probabilities and tests based on proper scoring rules. For the latter, three scoring rules are considered: the ranked probability score, the logarithmic score and the Dawid-Sebastiani score. Simulation studies show that all the different tests have good control of the type I error rate and sufficient power under miscalibration. As an illustration, we apply the methodology to weekly data on meningoccocal disease incidence in Germany, 2001–2006. The results show that the test approach is powerful in detecting miscalibrated forecasts. Copyright Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Wei Wei & Leonhard Held, 2014. "Calibration tests for count data," TEST: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 23(4), pages 787-805, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:testjl:v:23:y:2014:i:4:p:787-805
    DOI: 10.1007/s11749-014-0380-8
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    2. Petropoulos, Fotios & Apiletti, Daniele & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios & Babai, Mohamed Zied & Barrow, Devon K. & Ben Taieb, Souhaib & Bergmeir, Christoph & Bessa, Ricardo J. & Bijak, Jakub & Boylan, Joh, 2022. "Forecasting: theory and practice," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 705-871.
      • Fotios Petropoulos & Daniele Apiletti & Vassilios Assimakopoulos & Mohamed Zied Babai & Devon K. Barrow & Souhaib Ben Taieb & Christoph Bergmeir & Ricardo J. Bessa & Jakub Bijak & John E. Boylan & Jet, 2020. "Forecasting: theory and practice," Papers 2012.03854, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2022.
    3. Wei, Wei & Balabdaoui, Fadoua & Held, Leonhard, 2017. "Calibration tests for multivariate Gaussian forecasts," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 216-233.
    4. Bansal, Prateek & Krueger, Rico & Graham, Daniel J., 2021. "Fast Bayesian estimation of spatial count data models," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    5. Kolassa, Stephan, 2016. "Evaluating predictive count data distributions in retail sales forecasting," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 788-803.

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