IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecomod/v211y2008i1p202-208.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is mean squared error a consistent indicator of accuracy for spatially structured demographic models?

Author

Listed:
  • Etterson, Matthew A.
  • Nagy, Laura R.

Abstract

Animal demographic models are used in many disciplines and it is well-understood that their results and interpretation depend greatly on their structure and complexity. However, when models are constructed using data compiled from multiple sources it is difficult to objectively assess optimal structure and complexity. We explore the use of mean squared error (MSE) to identify optimal model structure. To illustrate, we compare the performance of a single-patch model versus a two-patch model for a migratory songbird in a spatially structured environment. In the single-patch model, mean fecundity across patches is estimated, and movement between patches is ignored. In the two-patch model, patch-specific reproductive rates are estimated, which requires the estimation and use of rates of movement between patches. MSE performed well as an indicator of optimal model structure, consistently conforming to our intuition about which model should be preferred under different combinations of model parameters. We show that (1) when dispersal offsets patch-specific demography, the single-patch model will always be favored, (2) with good estimates of vital rates, only modest sample sizes for dispersal are required to make the two-patch model more accurate, and (3) the same factors that result in large bias in the simple model also result in large sampling error for the two-patch model. Finally, our analyses also suggest that erroneous conclusions about optimal model complexity can be reached when additional structure is added to an already poorly parameterized model and we recommend a stepwise approach to the study of model complexity.

Suggested Citation

  • Etterson, Matthew A. & Nagy, Laura R., 2008. "Is mean squared error a consistent indicator of accuracy for spatially structured demographic models?," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 211(1), pages 202-208.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:211:y:2008:i:1:p:202-208
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2007.09.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380007004528
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2007.09.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David J. Spiegelhalter & Nicola G. Best & Bradley P. Carlin & Angelika Van Der Linde, 2002. "Bayesian measures of model complexity and fit," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 64(4), pages 583-639, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Buddhavarapu, Prasad & Bansal, Prateek & Prozzi, Jorge A., 2021. "A new spatial count data model with time-varying parameters," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 566-586.
    2. Mumtaz, Haroon & Theodoridis, Konstantinos, 2017. "Common and country specific economic uncertainty," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 205-216.
    3. Jesse Elliott & Zemin Bai & Shu-Ching Hsieh & Shannon E Kelly & Li Chen & Becky Skidmore & Said Yousef & Carine Zheng & David J Stewart & George A Wells, 2020. "ALK inhibitors for non-small cell lung cancer: A systematic review and network meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-18, February.
    4. Christina Leuker & Thorsten Pachur & Ralph Hertwig & Timothy J. Pleskac, 2019. "Do people exploit risk–reward structures to simplify information processing in risky choice?," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 5(1), pages 76-94, August.
    5. Francois Olivier & Laval Guillaume, 2011. "Deviance Information Criteria for Model Selection in Approximate Bayesian Computation," Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-25, July.
    6. Raggi, Davide & Bordignon, Silvano, 2012. "Long memory and nonlinearities in realized volatility: A Markov switching approach," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 56(11), pages 3730-3742.
    7. Angelica Gianfreda & Francesco Ravazzolo & Luca Rossini, 2023. "Large Time‐Varying Volatility Models for Hourly Electricity Prices," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 85(3), pages 545-573, June.
    8. Rubio, F.J. & Steel, M.F.J., 2011. "Inference for grouped data with a truncated skew-Laplace distribution," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(12), pages 3218-3231, December.
    9. Alessandri, Piergiorgio & Mumtaz, Haroon, 2019. "Financial regimes and uncertainty shocks," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 31-46.
    10. Padilla, Juan L. & Azevedo, Caio L.N. & Lachos, Victor H., 2018. "Multidimensional multiple group IRT models with skew normal latent trait distributions," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 250-268.
    11. Svetlana V. Tishkovskaya & Paul G. Blackwell, 2021. "Bayesian estimation of heterogeneous environments from animal movement data," Environmetrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), September.
    12. David Macro & Jeroen Weesie, 2016. "Inequalities between Others Do Matter: Evidence from Multiplayer Dictator Games," Games, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-23, April.
    13. Tautenhahn, Susanne & Heilmeier, Hermann & Jung, Martin & Kahl, Anja & Kattge, Jens & Moffat, Antje & Wirth, Christian, 2012. "Beyond distance-invariant survival in inverse recruitment modeling: A case study in Siberian Pinus sylvestris forests," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 233(C), pages 90-103.
    14. Julian P. T. Higgins & Simon G. Thompson & David J. Spiegelhalter, 2009. "A re‐evaluation of random‐effects meta‐analysis," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 172(1), pages 137-159, January.
    15. Simon Mak & Derek Bingham & Yi Lu, 2016. "A regional compound Poisson process for hurricane and tropical storm damage," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 65(5), pages 677-703, November.
    16. Xi, Yanhui & Peng, Hui & Qin, Yemei & Xie, Wenbiao & Chen, Xiaohong, 2015. "Bayesian analysis of heavy-tailed market microstructure model and its application in stock markets," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 141-153.
    17. Huang, Zhaodong & Chien, Steven & Zhu, Wei & Zheng, Pengjun, 2022. "Scheduling wheel inspection for sustainable urban rail transit operation: A Bayesian approach," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 586(C).
    18. Jorge I. Figueroa-Zúñiga & Cristian L. Bayes & Víctor Leiva & Shuangzhe Liu, 2022. "Robust beta regression modeling with errors-in-variables: a Bayesian approach and numerical applications," Statistical Papers, Springer, vol. 63(3), pages 919-942, June.
    19. Leonardo Oliveira Martins & Hirohisa Kishino, 2010. "Distribution of distances between topologies and its effect on detection of phylogenetic recombination," Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Springer;The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, vol. 62(1), pages 145-159, February.
    20. Tamal Ghosh & Malay Ghosh & Jerry J. Maples & Xueying Tang, 2022. "Multivariate Global-Local Priors for Small Area Estimation," Stats, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-16, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:211:y:2008:i:1:p:202-208. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ecological-modelling .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.