This could be modeled directly using Bayesian techniques. Consider the Bayesian version of the following model where we only observe y and X. y0 is not observed.
y0 <- X b + error y <- round(y0) The following code is based on modifying the code in the README of the CRAN rcppbugs R package. library(rcppbugs) set.seed(123) # set up the test data - y and X are observed but not y0 NR <- 1e2L NC <- 2L X <- cbind(1, rnorm(10)) y0 <- X %*% 1:2 y <- round(y0) # for comparison run a normal linear model w/ lm.fit using X and y lm.res <- lm.fit(X,y) print(coef(lm.res)) ## x1 x2 ## 0.9569366 1.9170808 # RCppBugs Model b <- mcmc.normal(rnorm(NC),mu=0,tau=0.0001) tau.y <- mcmc.gamma(sd(as.vector(y)),alpha=0.1,beta=0.1) y.hat <- deterministic(function(X,b) { round(X %*% b) }, X, b) y.lik <- mcmc.normal(y,mu=y.hat,tau=tau.y,observed=TRUE) m <- create.model(b, tau.y, y.hat, y.lik) # run the Bayesian model based on y and X cat("running model...\n") runtime <- system.time(ans <- run.model(m, iterations=1e5L, burn=1e4L, adapt=1e3L, thin=10L)) print(apply(ans[["b"]],2,mean)) ## [1] 0.9882485 2.0009989 On Wed, Oct 21, 2015 at 10:53 AM, Ravi Varadhan <ravi.varad...@jhu.edu> wrote: > Hi, > I am dealing with a regression problem where the response variable, time > (second) to walk 15 ft, is rounded to the nearest integer. I do not care > for the regression coefficients per se, but my main interest is in getting > the prediction equation for walking speed, given the predictors (age, > height, sex, etc.), where the predictions will be real numbers, and not > integers. The hope is that these predictions should provide unbiased > estimates of the "unrounded" walking speed. These sounds like a measurement > error problem, where the measurement error is due to rounding and hence > would be uniformly distributed (-0.5, 0.5). > > Are there any canonical approaches for handling this type of a problem? > What is wrong with just doing the standard linear regression? > > I googled and saw that this question was asked by someone else in a > stackexchange post, but it was unanswered. Any suggestions? > > Thank you, > Ravi > > Ravi Varadhan, Ph.D. (Biostatistics), Ph.D. (Environmental Engg) > Associate Professor, Department of Oncology > Division of Biostatistics & Bionformatics > Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center > Johns Hopkins University > 550 N. Broadway, Suite 1111-E > Baltimore, MD 21205 > 410-502-2619 > > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > -- Statistics & Software Consulting GKX Group, GKX Associates Inc. tel: 1-877-GKX-GROUP email: ggrothendieck at gmail.com [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.