title: A Monte Carlo EM algorithm for generalized linear mixed models with flexible random effects distribution.
abstract: A popular way to represent clustered binary, count, or other data is via the generalized linear mixed model framework, which accommodates correlation through incorporation of random effects. A standard assumption is that the random effects follow a parametric family such as the normal distribution; however, this may be unrealistic or too restrictive to represent the data. We relax this assumption and require only that the distribution of random effects belong to a class of 'smooth' densities and approximate the density by the seminonparametric (SNP) approach of Gallant and Nychka (1987). This representation allows the density to be skewed, multi-modal, fat- or thin-tailed relative to the normal and includes the normal as a special case. Because an efficient algorithm to sample from an SNP density is available, we propose a Monte Carlo EM algorithm using a rejection sampling scheme to estimate the fixed parameters of the linear predictor, variance components and the SNP density. The approach is illustrated by application to a data set and via simulation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, Box 8203, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-8203, USA. jchen2@stat.ncsu.edu
authors.forename: Junliang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Daowen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Davidian