63: A Smooth Transition Model Furnishing a Test for the Broken-stick Model

Music City Center 

In fields ranging from ecology to economics, the broken-stick model is used to model processes that exhibit a change. If changes happen gradually over a transition region, a model more flexible than the broken-stick is required. We introduce an expectation function, which we call the boomerang function, that allows gradual changes over a transition region. Using the boomerang model as the alternative, we propose a test with the broken-stick as the null model. We use simulation to study the performance of the test. We apply a version of the boomerang model to a dataset taken from the literature on the settlement time for a disturbed sediment in a tank of fluid.

Change-point

Segmented regression

Transition model 

Section on Statistics and the Environment