Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Scaled Inhomogeneous Phase-Type Distributions from Discrete Observations

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Autori principali: Baltazar-Larios, Fernando, Quintos, Alejandra
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Baltazar-Larios, Fernando
Quintos, Alejandra
author_facet Baltazar-Larios, Fernando
Quintos, Alejandra
contents Inhomogeneous phase-type (IPH) distributions extend classical phase-type models by allowing transition intensities to vary over time, offering greater flexibility for modeling heavy-tailed or time-dependent absorption phenomena. We focus on the subclass of IPH distributions with time-scaled sub-intensity matrices of the form $Λ(t) = h_β(t)Λ$, which admits a time transformation to a homogeneous Markov jump process. For this class, we develop a statistical inference framework for discretely observed trajectories that combines Markov-bridge reconstruction with a stochastic EM algorithm and a gradient-based update. The resulting method yields joint maximum-likelihood estimates of both the baseline sub-intensity matrix $Λ$ and the time-scaling parameter $β$. Through simulation studies for the matrix-Gompertz and matrix-Weibull families, and a real-data application to coronary allograft vasculopathy progression, we demonstrate that the proposed approach provides an accurate and computationally tractable tool for fitting time-scaled IPH models to irregular multi-state data.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_16061
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Scaled Inhomogeneous Phase-Type Distributions from Discrete Observations
Baltazar-Larios, Fernando
Quintos, Alejandra
Methodology
Applications
Inhomogeneous phase-type (IPH) distributions extend classical phase-type models by allowing transition intensities to vary over time, offering greater flexibility for modeling heavy-tailed or time-dependent absorption phenomena. We focus on the subclass of IPH distributions with time-scaled sub-intensity matrices of the form $Λ(t) = h_β(t)Λ$, which admits a time transformation to a homogeneous Markov jump process. For this class, we develop a statistical inference framework for discretely observed trajectories that combines Markov-bridge reconstruction with a stochastic EM algorithm and a gradient-based update. The resulting method yields joint maximum-likelihood estimates of both the baseline sub-intensity matrix $Λ$ and the time-scaling parameter $β$. Through simulation studies for the matrix-Gompertz and matrix-Weibull families, and a real-data application to coronary allograft vasculopathy progression, we demonstrate that the proposed approach provides an accurate and computationally tractable tool for fitting time-scaled IPH models to irregular multi-state data.
title Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Scaled Inhomogeneous Phase-Type Distributions from Discrete Observations
topic Methodology
Applications
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16061