IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dem/demres/v44y2021i45.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

D-splines: Estimating rate schedules using high-dimensional splines with empirical demographic penalties

Author

Listed:
  • Carl Schmertmann

    (Florida State University)

Abstract

Background: High-dimensional parametric models with penalized likelihood functions strike a good balance between bias and variance for estimating continuous age schedules from large samples. The penalized spline (P-spline) approach is particularly useful for these purposes, but it in small samples it can often produce implausible age schedule estimates. Objective: I propose and evaluate a new type of P-spline model for estimating demographic rate schedules. These estimators, which I call D-splines, regularize and smooth high-dimensional splines by using demographic patterns rather than generic mathematical rules. Methods: I compare P-spline estimates of age-specific mortality rates to three alternative D-spline estimators, over a large number of simulated small populations with known rates. The penalties for the D-spline estimators are derived from patterns in the Human Mortality Database. Results: For mortality estimates in small populations, D-spline estimators generally have lower errors than standard P-splines. Conclusions: Using penalties based on demographic information about patterns and variability in rate schedules improves P-spline estimators for small populations. Contribution: This paper expands demographers' toolkit by developing a new category of P-spline estimators that are more reliable for estimating mortality in small populations.

Suggested Citation

  • Carl Schmertmann, 2021. "D-splines: Estimating rate schedules using high-dimensional splines with empirical demographic penalties," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(45), pages 1085-1114.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:44:y:2021:i:45
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2021.44.45
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol44/45/44-45.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/DemRes.2021.44.45?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carl P. Schmertmann & Marcos R. Gonzaga, 2018. "Bayesian Estimation of Age-Specific Mortality and Life Expectancy for Small Areas With Defective Vital Records," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(4), pages 1363-1388, August.
    2. Jason Hilton & Erengul Dodd & Jonathan J. Forster & Peter W. F. Smith, 2019. "Projecting UK mortality by using Bayesian generalized additive models," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 68(1), pages 29-49, January.
    3. Jan Hoem & Dan Madien & Jørgen Nielsen & Else-Marie Ohlsen & Hans Hansen & Bo Rennermalm, 1981. "Experiments in modelling recent Danish fertility curves," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 18(2), pages 231-244, May.
    4. Hyndman, Rob J. & Shahid Ullah, Md., 2007. "Robust forecasting of mortality and fertility rates: A functional data approach," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 51(10), pages 4942-4956, June.
    5. Joop de Beer, 2012. "Smoothing and projecting age-specific probabilities of death by TOPALS," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 27(20), pages 543-592.
    6. Donald McNeil & T. Trullell & John Turner, 1977. "Spline interpolation of demographic oata," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 14(2), pages 245-252, May.
    7. Camarda, Carlo G., 2012. "MortalitySmooth: An R Package for Smoothing Poisson Counts with P-Splines," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 50(i01).
    8. Carl Schmertmann, 2003. "A system of model fertility schedules with graphically intuitive parameters," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 9(5), pages 81-110.
    9. Carter, Lawrence R. & Lee, Ronald D., 1992. "Modeling and forecasting US sex differentials in mortality," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 393-411, November.
    10. Carl Schmertmann & Emilio Zagheni & Joshua R. Goldstein & Mikko Myrskylä, 2014. "Bayesian Forecasting of Cohort Fertility," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 109(506), pages 500-513, June.
    11. Piet De Jong & Leonie Tickle, 2006. "Extending Lee-Carter Mortality Forecasting," Mathematical Population Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18.
    12. Monica Alexander & Leontine Alkema, 2018. "Global estimation of neonatal mortality using a Bayesian hierarchical splines regression model," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 38(15), pages 335-372.
    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. 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.
    2. Carlo Giovanni Camarda, 2019. "Smooth constrained mortality forecasting," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 41(38), pages 1091-1130.
    3. Niels Haldrup & Carsten P. T. Rosenskjold, 2019. "A Parametric Factor Model of the Term Structure of Mortality," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-22, March.
    4. Ahbab Mohammad Fazle Rabbi & Stefano Mazzuco, 2021. "Mortality Forecasting with the Lee–Carter Method: Adjusting for Smoothing and Lifespan Disparity," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 37(1), pages 97-120, March.
    5. Heather Booth & Rob Hyndman & Leonie Tickle & Piet de Jong, 2006. "Lee-Carter mortality forecasting: a multi-country comparison of variants and extensions," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 15(9), pages 289-310.
    6. Hyndman, Rob J. & Booth, Heather, 2008. "Stochastic population forecasts using functional data models for mortality, fertility and migration," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 323-342.
    7. Basellini, Ugofilippo & Camarda, Carlo Giovanni & Booth, Heather, 2023. "Thirty years on: A review of the Lee–Carter method for forecasting mortality," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1033-1049.
    8. de Jong, Piet & Tickle, Leonie & Xu, Jianhui, 2016. "Coherent modeling of male and female mortality using Lee–Carter in a complex number framework," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 130-137.
    9. Jaap Spreeuw & Iqbal Owadally & Muhammad Kashif, 2022. "Projecting Mortality Rates Using a Markov Chain," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-18, April.
    10. Shang, Han Lin & Smith, Peter W.F. & Bijak, Jakub & Wiśniowski, Arkadiusz, 2016. "A multilevel functional data method for forecasting population, with an application to the United Kingdom," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 629-649.
    11. Cristina Rueda-Sabater & Pedro Alvarez-Esteban, 2008. "The analysis of age-specific fertility patterns via logistic models," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(9), pages 1053-1070.
    12. Marcus Ebeling, 2018. "How Has the Lower Boundary of Human Mortality Evolved, and Has It Already Stopped Decreasing?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(5), pages 1887-1903, October.
    13. Lingbing Feng & Yanlin Shi, 2018. "Forecasting mortality rates: multivariate or univariate models?," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 289-318, September.
    14. Joanne Ellison & Erengul Dodd & Jonathan J. Forster, 2020. "Forecasting of cohort fertility under a hierarchical Bayesian approach," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 183(3), pages 829-856, June.
    15. Han Lin Shang & Heather Booth & Rob Hyndman, 2011. "Point and interval forecasts of mortality rates and life expectancy: A comparison of ten principal component methods," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 25(5), pages 173-214.
    16. Norkhairunnisa Redzwan & Rozita Ramli, 2022. "A Bibliometric Analysis of Research on Stochastic Mortality Modelling and Forecasting," Risks, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-17, October.
    17. Rueda, Cristina & Rodríguez, Pilar, 2010. "State space models for estimating and forecasting fertility," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 712-724, October.
    18. Ainhoa-Elena Léger & Stefano Mazzuco, 2021. "What Can We Learn from the Functional Clustering of Mortality Data? An Application to the Human Mortality Database," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 37(4), pages 769-798, November.
    19. Azizur Rahman & Depeng Jiang, 2023. "Forecasting Canadian Age-Specific Mortality Rates: Application of Functional Time Series Analysis," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-14, September.
    20. Booth, Heather, 2006. "Demographic forecasting: 1980 to 2005 in review," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 547-581.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    mortality estimates; splines; penalized likelihood;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:dem:demres:v:44:y:2021:i:45. 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: Editorial Office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    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.