The regression
function is used to specify linear associations
between variables of a latent variable model, and offers formula syntax
resembling the model specification of e.g. lm
.
For instance, to add the following linear regression model, to the
lvm
-object, m
:
$$ E(Y|X_1,X_2) = \beta_1 X_1 + \beta_2 X_2$$
We can write
regression(m) <- y ~ x1 + x2
Multivariate models can be specified by successive calls with
regression
, but multivariate formulas are also supported, e.g.
regression(m) <- c(y1,y2) ~ x1 + x2
defines
$$ E(Y_i|X_1,X_2) = \beta_{1i} X_1 + \beta_{2i} X_2 $$
The special function, f
, can be used in the model specification to
specify linear constraints. E.g. to fix \(\beta_1=\beta_2\)
, we could write
regression(m) <- y ~ f(x1,beta) + f(x2,beta)
The second argument of f
can also be a number (e.g. defining an
offset) or be set to NA
in order to clear any previously defined
linear constraints.
Alternatively, a more straight forward notation can be used:
regression(m) <- y ~ beta*x1 + beta*x2
All the parameter values of the linear constraints can be given as the right
handside expression of the assigment function regression<-
(or
regfix<-
) if the first (and possibly second) argument is defined as
well. E.g:
regression(m,y1~x1+x2) <- list("a1","b1")
defines \(E(Y_1|X_1,X_2) = a1 X_1 + b1 X_2\). The rhs argument can be a
mixture of character and numeric values (and NA's to remove constraints).
The function regression
(called without additional arguments) can be
used to inspect the linear constraints of a lvm
-object.