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Forecasting with penalty functions - Part I

There is much to say on the topic of penalty forecasting, so this is the first of three blogs. In this blog we will describe penalty forecasting in one dimension; this will establish the basic ideas. In the second blog we will discuss the case of most interest to actuaries: two-dimensional forecasting. In the final blog we will discuss some of the properties of penalty forecasting in two dimensions.

Written by: Iain CurrieTags: Filter information matrix by tag: forecasting, Filter information matrix by tag: splines, Filter information matrix by tag: P-splines, Filter information matrix by tag: penalty function

Simulating the Future

This blog has two aims: first, to describe how we go about simulation in the Projections Toolkit; second, to emphasize the important role a model has in determining the width of the confidence interval of the forecast.

Written by: Iain CurrieTags: Filter information matrix by tag: simulation, Filter information matrix by tag: mortality projections

The strange case of Scotland's missing improvements

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to attend a New Scientist: Live presentation given by Sir Harry Burns entitled "Making Scotland Well Again", which was an examination of the links between social conditions and incidence of disease.
Written by: Gavin RitchieTags: Filter information matrix by tag: mortality, Filter information matrix by tag: longevity, Filter information matrix by tag: Scotland, Filter information matrix by tag: Glasgow

Dealing direct

Data in Longevitas takes two forms. Firstly, we have the user-uploaded data, which has normally been extracted from an administration system with only modest formatting and then secondly, we have operation input data which is the bare-bones format necessary to support a specific calculation.
Written by: Gavin RitchieTags: Filter information matrix by tag: data format

Conditional tail expectations

In a recent posting I looked at the calculation of percentiles and quantiles, which underpin many calculations for ICA and Solvency II. Simply put, an \(\alpha\)-quantile is the value which is not expected to be exceeded \(\alpha\times 100\)% of the time. This value is denoted \(Q_{\alpha}\). Mathematically, for a continuous random variable, \(X\), and a given probability level \(\alpha\) we have:

$$\Pr(X\leq Q_\alpha)=\alpha$$

Written by: Stephen RichardsTags: Filter information matrix by tag: conditional tail expectation, Filter information matrix by tag: quantile, Filter information matrix by tag: percentile, Filter information matrix by tag: coherence, Filter information matrix by tag: subadditivity

Quantiles and percentiles

Quantiles are points taken at regular intervals from the cumulative distribution function of a random variable. They are generally described as q-quantiles, where q specifies the number of intervals which are separated by q−1 points.
Written by: Stephen RichardsTags: Filter information matrix by tag: quantile, Filter information matrix by tag: percentile, Filter information matrix by tag: Solvency II, Filter information matrix by tag: Excel, Filter information matrix by tag: R language

Creative thinking around longevity risk

The U.K. has been a hotbed of innovation when dealing with the longevity risk found in pension schemes.
Written by: Stephen RichardsTags: Filter information matrix by tag: longevity risk, Filter information matrix by tag: regulation, Filter information matrix by tag: longevity swaps

Excel's limits

We have written in the past about some of the reasons why we don't use Excel to fit our models.  However, we do use Excel for validation purposes — fitting models using two entirely separate tools is a good way of checking production code.  That said, there are some important limits to Excel, especially when it comes to fitting projection models.
Written by: Stephen RichardsTags: Filter information matrix by tag: Excel, Filter information matrix by tag: Lee-Carter, Filter information matrix by tag: APC, Filter information matrix by tag: Cairns-Blake-Dowd