# Bayesian Regression Using NumPyro¶

In this tutorial, we will explore how to do bayesian regression in NumPyro, using a simple example adapted from Statistical Rethinking [1]. In particular, we would like to explore the following: - Write a simple model using the sample NumPyro primitive. - Run inference using MCMC in NumPyro, in particular, using the No U-Turn Sampler (NUTS) to get a posterior distribution over our regression parameters of interest. - Learn about utilities such as initialize_model that are useful for running HMC. - Learn how we can use effect-handlers in NumPyro to generate execution traces, condition on sample sites, seed models with RNG seeds, etc., and use this to implement various utilities that will be useful for MCMC. e.g. computing model log likelihood, generating empirical distribution over the posterior predictive, etc.

## Tutorial Outline:¶

[1]:

%reset -s -f

[2]:

import jax
import jax.numpy as np
from jax import random, vmap
from jax.config import config; config.update("jax_platform_name", "cpu")
from jax.scipy.special import logsumexp
import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as onp
import pandas as pd
import seaborn as sns

from numpyro.diagnostics import hpdi
import numpyro.distributions as dist
from numpyro.handlers import sample, seed, substitute, trace
from numpyro.hmc_util import initialize_model
from numpyro.mcmc import mcmc

%matplotlib inline
plt.style.use('bmh')
plt.rcParams.update({'font.size': 16,
'xtick.labelsize': 14,
'ytick.labelsize': 14,
'axes.titlesize': 'large',
'axes.labelsize': 'medium'})


## Dataset¶

For this example, we will use the WaffleDivorce dataset from Chapter 05, Statistical Rethinking [1]. The dataset contains divorce rates in each of the 50 states in the USA, along with predictors such as population, median age of marriage, whether it is a Southern state and, curiously, number of Waffle Houses.

[3]:

DATASET_URL = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rmcelreath/rethinking/master/data/WaffleDivorce.csv'
dset

[3]:

Location Loc Population MedianAgeMarriage Marriage Marriage SE Divorce Divorce SE WaffleHouses South Slaves1860 Population1860 PropSlaves1860
0 Alabama AL 4.78 25.3 20.2 1.27 12.7 0.79 128 1 435080 964201 0.450000
1 Alaska AK 0.71 25.2 26.0 2.93 12.5 2.05 0 0 0 0 0.000000
2 Arizona AZ 6.33 25.8 20.3 0.98 10.8 0.74 18 0 0 0 0.000000
3 Arkansas AR 2.92 24.3 26.4 1.70 13.5 1.22 41 1 111115 435450 0.260000
4 California CA 37.25 26.8 19.1 0.39 8.0 0.24 0 0 0 379994 0.000000
5 Colorado CO 5.03 25.7 23.5 1.24 11.6 0.94 11 0 0 34277 0.000000
6 Connecticut CT 3.57 27.6 17.1 1.06 6.7 0.77 0 0 0 460147 0.000000
7 Delaware DE 0.90 26.6 23.1 2.89 8.9 1.39 3 0 1798 112216 0.016000
8 District of Columbia DC 0.60 29.7 17.7 2.53 6.3 1.89 0 0 0 75080 0.000000
9 Florida FL 18.80 26.4 17.0 0.58 8.5 0.32 133 1 61745 140424 0.440000
10 Georgia GA 9.69 25.9 22.1 0.81 11.5 0.58 381 1 462198 1057286 0.440000
11 Hawaii HI 1.36 26.9 24.9 2.54 8.3 1.27 0 0 0 0 0.000000
12 Idaho ID 1.57 23.2 25.8 1.84 7.7 1.05 0 0 0 0 0.000000
13 Illinois IL 12.83 27.0 17.9 0.58 8.0 0.45 2 0 0 1711951 0.000000
14 Indiana IN 6.48 25.7 19.8 0.81 11.0 0.63 17 0 0 1350428 0.000000
15 Iowa IA 3.05 25.4 21.5 1.46 10.2 0.91 0 0 0 674913 0.000000
16 Kansas KS 2.85 25.0 22.1 1.48 10.6 1.09 6 0 2 107206 0.000019
17 Kentucky KY 4.34 24.8 22.2 1.11 12.6 0.75 64 1 225483 1155684 0.000000
18 Louisiana LA 4.53 25.9 20.6 1.19 11.0 0.89 66 1 331726 708002 0.470000
19 Maine ME 1.33 26.4 13.5 1.40 13.0 1.48 0 0 0 628279 0.000000
20 Maryland MD 5.77 27.3 18.3 1.02 8.8 0.69 11 0 87189 687049 0.130000
21 Massachusetts MA 6.55 28.5 15.8 0.70 7.8 0.52 0 0 0 1231066 0.000000
22 Michigan MI 9.88 26.4 16.5 0.69 9.2 0.53 0 0 0 749113 0.000000
23 Minnesota MN 5.30 26.3 15.3 0.77 7.4 0.60 0 0 0 172023 0.000000
24 Mississippi MS 2.97 25.8 19.3 1.54 11.1 1.01 72 1 436631 791305 0.550000
25 Missouri MO 5.99 25.6 18.6 0.81 9.5 0.67 39 1 114931 1182012 0.097000
26 Montana MT 0.99 25.7 18.5 2.31 9.1 1.71 0 0 0 0 0.000000
27 Nebraska NE 1.83 25.4 19.6 1.44 8.8 0.94 0 0 15 28841 0.000520
28 New Hampshire NH 1.32 26.8 16.7 1.76 10.1 1.61 0 0 0 326073 0.000000
29 New Jersey NJ 8.79 27.7 14.8 0.59 6.1 0.46 0 0 18 672035 0.000027
30 New Mexico NM 2.06 25.8 20.4 1.90 10.2 1.11 2 0 0 93516 0.000000
31 New York NY 19.38 28.4 16.8 0.47 6.6 0.31 0 0 0 3880735 0.000000
32 North Carolina NC 9.54 25.7 20.4 0.98 9.9 0.48 142 1 331059 992622 0.330000
33 North Dakota ND 0.67 25.3 26.7 2.93 8.0 1.44 0 0 0 0 0.000000
34 Ohio OH 11.54 26.3 16.9 0.61 9.5 0.45 64 0 0 2339511 0.000000
35 Oklahoma OK 3.75 24.4 23.8 1.29 12.8 1.01 16 0 0 0 0.000000
36 Oregon OR 3.83 26.0 18.9 1.10 10.4 0.80 0 0 0 52465 0.000000
37 Pennsylvania PA 12.70 27.1 15.5 0.48 7.7 0.43 11 0 0 2906215 0.000000
38 Rhode Island RI 1.05 28.2 15.0 2.11 9.4 1.79 0 0 0 174620 0.000000
39 South Carolina SC 4.63 26.4 18.1 1.18 8.1 0.70 144 1 402406 703708 0.570000
40 South Dakota SD 0.81 25.6 20.1 2.64 10.9 2.50 0 0 0 4837 0.000000
41 Tennessee TN 6.35 25.2 19.4 0.85 11.4 0.75 103 1 275719 1109801 0.200000
42 Texas TX 25.15 25.2 21.5 0.61 10.0 0.35 99 1 182566 604215 0.300000
43 Utah UT 2.76 23.3 29.6 1.77 10.2 0.93 0 0 0 40273 0.000000
44 Vermont VT 0.63 26.9 16.4 2.40 9.6 1.87 0 0 0 315098 0.000000
45 Virginia VA 8.00 26.4 20.5 0.83 8.9 0.52 40 1 490865 1219630 0.400000
46 Washington WA 6.72 25.9 21.4 1.00 10.0 0.65 0 0 0 11594 0.000000
47 West Virginia WV 1.85 25.0 22.2 1.69 10.9 1.34 4 1 18371 376688 0.049000
48 Wisconsin WI 5.69 26.3 17.2 0.79 8.3 0.57 0 0 0 775881 0.000000
49 Wyoming WY 0.56 24.2 30.7 3.92 10.3 1.90 0 0 0 0 0.000000

Let us plot the pair-wise relationship amongst the main variables in the dataset, using seaborn.pairplot.

[4]:

vars = ['Population', 'MedianAgeMarriage', 'Marriage', 'WaffleHouses', 'South', 'Divorce']
sns.pairplot(dset, x_vars=vars, y_vars=vars, palette='husl');


From the plots above, we can clearly observe that there is a relationship between divorce rates and marriage rates in a state (as might be expected), and also between divorce rates and median age of marriage.

There is also a weak relationship between number of Waffle Houses and divorce rates, which is not obvious from the plot above, but will be clearer if we regress Divorce against WaffleHouse and plot the results. This is an example of a spurious association. We do not expect the number of Waffle Houses in a state to affect the divorce rate, but it is likely correlated with other factors that have an effect on the divorce rate. We will not delve into this spurious association in this tutorial, but the interested reader is encouraged to read Chapters 5 and 6 of [1] which explores the problem of causal association in the presence of multiple predictors.

For simplicity, we will primarily focus on marriage rate and the median age of marriage as our predictors for divorce rate throughout the remaining tutorial.

[5]:

sns.regplot('WaffleHouses', 'Divorce', dset);


## Regression Model to Predict Divorce Rate¶

Let us now write a regressionn model in NumPyro to predict the divorce rate as a linear function of marriage rate and median age of marriage in each of the states.

First, note that our predictor variables have somewhat different scales. It is a good practice to standardize our predictors and response variables to mean 0 and standard deviation 1, which should result in faster inference. Refer to this note in the Stan manual for more details.

[6]:

dset['AgeScaled'] = (dset.MedianAgeMarriage - onp.mean(dset.MedianAgeMarriage)) / onp.std(dset.MedianAgeMarriage)
dset['MarriageScaled'] = (dset.Marriage - onp.mean(dset.Marriage)) / onp.std(dset.Marriage)
dset['DivorceScaled'] = (dset.Divorce - onp.mean(dset.Divorce)) / onp.std(dset.Divorce)


We write the NumPyro model as follows. While the code should largely be self-explanatory, take note of the following: - In NumPyro, model code is any Python callable that can accept arguments and keywords. For HMC which we will be using for this tutorial, these arguments and keywords cannot change during model execution. This is convenient for passing in numpy arrays, or boolean arguments that might affect the execution path. - In addition to regular Python statements, the model code also contains primitives like sample. These primitives can be interpreted with various side-effects by effect handlers used by inference algorithms in NumPyro. For more on effect handlers, refer to [3], [4]. For now, just remember that a sample statement makes this a stochastic function by sampling from some distribution of interest. - The reason why we have kept our predictors as optional keyword arguments is to be able to reuse the same model as we vary the set of predictors. Likewise, the reason why the response variable is optional is that we would like to reuse this model to sample from the posterior predictive distribution. See the section on plotting the posterior predictive distribution, as an example.

[7]:

def model(marriage=None, age=None, divorce=None):
a = sample('a', dist.Normal(0., 0.2))
M, A = 0., 0.
if marriage is not None:
bM = sample('bM', dist.Normal(0., 0.5))
M = bM * marriage
if age is not None:
bA = sample('bA', dist.Normal(0., 0.5))
A = bA * age
sigma = sample('sigma', dist.Exponential(1.))
mu = a + M + A
sample('obs', dist.Normal(mu, sigma), obs=divorce)


### Model 1: Predictor - Marriage Rate¶

We first try to model the divorce rate as depending on a single variable, marriage rate. As mentioned above, we can use the same model code as earlier, but only pass values for marriage and divorce keyword arguments. We will use the No U-Turn Sampler (see [5] for more details on the NUTS algorithm) to run inference on this simple model.

Note the following requirements for running HMC and NUTS in NumPyro: - The Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (or, the NUTS) implementation in Pyro takes in a potential energy function. This is the negative log joint density for the model. - The verlet integrator in HMC (or, NUTS) returns sample values simulated using Hamiltonian dynamics in the unconstrained space. As such, continuous variables with bounded support need to be transformed into unconstrained space using bijective transforms. We also need to transform these samples back to their constrained support before returning these values to the user.

Thankfully, all of this is handled on the backend for us. Let us go through the steps one by one. - JAX uses functional PRNGs. Unlike other languages / frameworks which maintain a global random state, in JAX, every call to a sampler requires an explicit PRNGKey. We will split our initial random seed for subsequent operations, so that we do not accidentally reuse the same seed. - The function initialize_model takes a model along with model arguments (and keyword arguments), and returns a tuple of initial parameters, potential energy function, and constrain function. The initial parameters are used to initiate the MCMC chain, the potential energy function is a callable that when given unconstrained sample values returns the potential energy at these sample values. This is used by the verlet integrator in HMC. Lastly, constrain_fn is a callable that transforms the unconstrained samples returned by HMC/NUTS to sample values that lie within the constrained support. - Finally, we use the mcmc function to run inference using the default NUTS sampler. Note that to run vanilla HMC, all you need to do is to pass algo='HMC' as argument to mcmc instead. This is a convenience utility that does all of the following: - Runs warmup - adapts steps size and mass matrix. - Uses the sample from the warmup phase to start MCMC. - Return samples from the posterior distribution and print diagnostic information.

[8]:

# Start from this source of randomness. We will split keys for subsequent operations.
rng = random.PRNGKey(0)
rng_, rng = random.split(rng)

# Initialize the model.
init_params, potential_fn, constrain_fn = initialize_model(rng_, model,
marriage=dset.MarriageScaled.values,
divorce=dset.DivorceScaled.values)
num_warmup, num_samples = 1000, 2000

# Run NUTS.
samples_1 = mcmc(num_warmup, num_samples, init_params,
potential_fn=potential_fn,
trajectory_length=10,
constrain_fn=constrain_fn)

warmup: 100%|██████████| 1000/1000 [00:12<00:00, 78.24it/s, 1 steps of size 6.99e-01. acc. prob=0.79]
sample: 100%|██████████| 2000/2000 [00:03<00:00, 515.37it/s, 3 steps of size 6.99e-01. acc. prob=0.88]



mean         sd       5.5%      94.5%      n_eff       Rhat
a       0.00       0.11      -0.19       0.17    1367.26       1.00
bM       0.34       0.13       0.13       0.55    1188.82       1.00
sigma       0.96       0.10       0.80       1.10    1192.29       1.00


#### Posterior Distribution over the Regression Parameters¶

We notice that the progress bar gives us online statistics on the acceptance probability, step size and number of steps taken per sample while running NUTS. In particular, during warmup, we adapt the step size and mass matrix to achieve a certain target acceptance probability (0.8, by default). We were able to successfully adapt our step size to achieve this target in the warmup phase.

During warmup, the aim is to adapt or learn values for hyper-parameters such as step size and mass matrix (the HMC algorithm is very sensitive to these hyper-parameters), and to reach the typical set (see [6] for more details). If there are any issues in the model specification, it might be reflected in low acceptance probabilities or very high number of steps. We use the sample from the end of the warmup phase to seed the MCMC chain (denoted by the second sample progress bar) from which we generate the desired number of samples from our target distribution.

At the end of inference, NumPyro prints the mean, std and 90% CI values for each of the latent parameters. Note that since we standardized our predictors and response variable, we would expect the intercept to have mean 0, as can be seen here. It also prints other convergence diagnostics on the latent parameters in the model, including effective sample size and the gelman rubin diagnostic ($$\hat{R}$$). The value for these diagnostics indicates that the chain has converged to the target distribution. In our case, the “target distribution” is the posterior distribution over the latent parameters that we are interested in. Note that this is often worth verifying with multiple chains on more complicated models. In the end, samples_1 is a collection (in our case, a dict since init_samples was a dict) containing samples from the posterior distribution for each of the latent parameters in the model.

To look at our regression fit, let us plot the regression line using our posterior estimates for the regression parameters, along with the 90% Credibility Interval (CI). Note that the hpdi function in NumPyro’s diagnostics module can be used to compute CI. In the functions below, note that the collected samples from the posterior are all along the leading axis.

We can see from the plot, that the CI broadens towards the tails where values of the predictor variables are sparse, as can be expected.

[9]:

def plot_regression(x, y_mean, y_hpdi):
# Sort values for plotting by x axis
idx = np.argsort(x)
marriage = x[idx]
mean = y_mean[idx]
hpdi = y_hpdi[:, idx]
divorce = dset.DivorceScaled.values[idx]

# Plot
fig, ax = plt.subplots(nrows=1, ncols=1, figsize=(6, 6))
ax.plot(marriage, mean)
ax.plot(marriage, divorce, 'o')
ax.fill_between(marriage, hpdi[0], hpdi[1], alpha=0.3, interpolate=True)
return ax

# Compute empirical posterior distribution over mu
posterior_mu = np.expand_dims(samples_1['a'], -1) + \
np.expand_dims(samples_1['bM'], -1) * dset.MarriageScaled.values

mean_mu = np.mean(posterior_mu, axis=0)
hpdi_mu = hpdi(posterior_mu, 0.9)
ax = plot_regression(dset.MarriageScaled.values, mean_mu, hpdi_mu)
ax.set(xlabel='Marriage rate', ylabel='Divorce rate', title='Regression line with 90% CI');


#### Posterior Predictive Distribution¶

Let us now look at the posterior predictive distribution to see how our predictive distribution looks with respect to the observed divorce rates. To get samples from the posterior predictive distribution, we need to run the model by substituting the latent parameters with samples from the posterior. This sounds complicated, but this can be easily achieved by using effect handlers from the handlers module.

In particular, note the use of the substitute, seed and trace effect handlers in the predict function. - The seed effect-handler is used to wrap a stochastic function with an initial PRNGKey seed. When a sample statement inside the model is called, it uses the existing seed to sample from a distribution but this effect-handler also splits the existing key to ensure that future sample calls in the model use the newly split key instead. This is to prevent us from having to explicitly pass in a PRNGKey to each sample statement. - The substitute effect handler simply substitutes the value for the site name present in the post_samples dict instead of sampling from the distribution, which can be useful for conditioning sample sites to certain values. - The trace effect handler runs the model and records the execution trace within an OrderedDict. This trace object contains execution metadata that is useful for computing quantities such as the log joint density.

It should be clear now that the predict function simply runs the model by substituting the latent parameters with samples from the posterior (generated by the mcmc function) to generate predictions, which are samples from the posterior predictive distribution. Note the use of JAX’s auto-vectorization transform called vmap to vectorize predictions. If we didn’t use vmap, we would have to use a native for loop which for each sample which is much slower. Each draw from the posterior can be used to get predictions over all the 50 states. When we vectorize this over all the samples from the posterior using vmap, we will get a predictions_1 array of shape (num_samples, 50). We can then compute the mean and 90% CI of these samples to plot the posterior predictive distribution.

[10]:

def predict(rng, post_samples, model, *args, **kwargs):
model = substitute(seed(model, rng), post_samples)
model_trace = trace(model).get_trace(*args, **kwargs)
return model_trace['obs']['value']

[11]:

# vectorize predictions via vmap
predict_fn = vmap(lambda rng, samples: predict(rng, samples, model, marriage=dset.MarriageScaled.values))
rng, rng_ = random.split(rng)
predictions_1 = predict_fn(random.split(rng_, num_samples), samples_1)

mean_pred = np.mean(predictions_1, axis=0)
hpdi_pred = hpdi(predictions_1, 0.9)

ax = plot_regression(dset.MarriageScaled.values, mean_pred, hpdi_pred)
ax.set(xlabel='Marriage rate', ylabel='Divorce rate', title='Predictions with 90% CI');


We will use the same plot_regression function as earlier. We notice that our CI for the predictive distribution is much broader as compared to the last plot due to the additional noise introduced by the sigma parameter. Note that most data points lie well within the 90% CI, which indicates a good fit.

#### Model Log Likelihood¶

Likewise, making use of effect-handlers and vmap, we can also compute the log likelihood for this model given the dataset.

[12]:

def log_lk(rng, params, model, *args, **kwargs):
model = substitute(seed(model, rng), params)
model_trace = trace(model).get_trace(*args, **kwargs)
obs_node = model_trace['obs']
return np.sum(obs_node['fn'].log_prob(obs_node['value']))

def expected_log_likelihood(rng, params, model, *args, **kwargs):
n = list(params.values())[0].shape[0]
log_lk_fn = vmap(lambda rng, params: log_lk(rng, params, model, *args, **kwargs))
log_lk_vals = log_lk_fn(random.split(rng, n), params)
return logsumexp(log_lk_vals) - np.log(n)

[13]:

rng, rng_ = random.split(rng)
print('Log likelihood: {}'.format(expected_log_likelihood(rng_,
samples_1,
model,
marriage=dset.MarriageScaled.values,
divorce=dset.DivorceScaled.values)))

Log likelihood: -68.14618682861328


### Model 2: Predictor - Median Age of Marriage¶

We will now model the divorce rate as a function of the median age of marriage. The computations are mostly a reproduction of what we did for Model 1. Notice the following: - Divorce rate is inversely related to the age of marriage. Hence states where the median age of marriage is low will likely have a higher divorce rate. - We get a higher log likelihood of -60.92 as compared to -68.15 with Model 2, indicating that median age of marriage is likely a much better predictor of divorce rate.

[14]:

rng, rng_ = random.split(rng)
init_params, potential_fn, constrain_fn = initialize_model(rng_, model,
age=dset.AgeScaled.values,
divorce=dset.DivorceScaled.values)

samples_2 = mcmc(num_warmup, num_samples, init_params,
potential_fn=potential_fn,
trajectory_length=10,
constrain_fn=constrain_fn)

warmup: 100%|██████████| 1000/1000 [00:12<00:00, 79.17it/s, 3 steps of size 6.96e-01. acc. prob=0.79]
sample: 100%|██████████| 2000/2000 [00:04<00:00, 470.51it/s, 3 steps of size 6.96e-01. acc. prob=0.88]



mean         sd       5.5%      94.5%      n_eff       Rhat
a      -0.00       0.10      -0.17       0.16    1036.93       1.00
bA      -0.57       0.11      -0.75      -0.39    1246.97       1.00
sigma       0.83       0.09       0.71       0.97    1195.21       1.00

[15]:

posterior_mu = np.expand_dims(samples_2['a'], -1) + \
np.expand_dims(samples_2['bA'], -1) * dset.AgeScaled.values
mean_mu = np.mean(posterior_mu, axis=0)
hpdi_mu = hpdi(posterior_mu, 0.9)
ax = plot_regression(dset.AgeScaled.values, mean_mu, hpdi_mu)
ax.set(xlabel='Median marriage age', ylabel='Divorce rate', title='Regression line with 90% CI');

[16]:

rng, rng_ = random.split(rng)
predict_fn = vmap(lambda rng, samples: predict(rng, samples, model, age=dset.AgeScaled.values))
predictions_2 = predict_fn(random.split(rng_, num_samples), samples_2)

mean_pred = np.mean(predictions_2, axis=0)
hpdi_pred = hpdi(predictions_2, 0.9)

ax = plot_regression(dset.AgeScaled.values, mean_pred, hpdi_pred)
ax.set(xlabel='Median Age', ylabel='Divorce rate', title='Predictions with 90% CI');

[17]:

rng, rng_ = random.split(rng)
print('Log likelihood: {}'.format(expected_log_likelihood(rng_,
samples_2,
model,
age=dset.AgeScaled.values,
divorce=dset.DivorceScaled.values)))

Log likelihood: -60.926387786865234


### Model 3: Predictor - Marriage Rate and Median Age of Marriage¶

Finally, we will also model divorce rate as depending on both marriage rate as well as the median age of marriage. Note that there is no increase in the model’s log likelihood over Model 2 which likely indicates that the marginal information from marriage rate in predicting divorce rate is low when the median age of marriage is already known.

[18]:

rng, rng_ = random.split(rng)
init_params, potential_fn, constrain_fn = initialize_model(rng_, model,
marriage=dset.MarriageScaled.values,
age=dset.AgeScaled.values,
divorce=dset.DivorceScaled.values)

samples_3 = mcmc(num_warmup, num_samples, init_params,
potential_fn=potential_fn,
trajectory_length=10,
constrain_fn=constrain_fn)

warmup: 100%|██████████| 1000/1000 [00:10<00:00, 93.74it/s, 3 steps of size 6.48e-01. acc. prob=0.79]
sample: 100%|██████████| 2000/2000 [00:04<00:00, 474.30it/s, 3 steps of size 6.48e-01. acc. prob=0.86]



mean         sd       5.5%      94.5%      n_eff       Rhat
a       0.00       0.10      -0.15       0.18     959.98       1.00
bA      -0.61       0.16      -0.89      -0.38     981.45       1.00
bM      -0.06       0.16      -0.30       0.19     961.60       1.00
sigma       0.84       0.09       0.70       0.97     930.44       1.00

[19]:

rng, rng_ = random.split(rng)
print('Log likelihood: {}'.format(expected_log_likelihood(rng_,
samples_3,
model,
marriage=dset.MarriageScaled.values,
age=dset.AgeScaled.values,
divorce=dset.DivorceScaled.values)))

Log likelihood: -61.04328918457031


### Divorce Rate Residuals by State¶

The regression plots above shows that the observed divorce rates for many states differs considerably from the mean regression line. To dig deeper into how the last model (Model 3) under-predicts or over-predicts for each of the states, we will plot the posterior predictive and residuals (Observed divorce rate - Predicted divorce rate) for each of the states.

[20]:

# Predictions for Model 3.
rng, rng_ = random.split(rng)
predict_fn = vmap(lambda rng, samples: predict(rng, samples, model,
marriage=dset.MarriageScaled.values,
age=dset.AgeScaled.values))
predictions_3 = predict_fn(random.split(rng_, num_samples), samples_3)
y = np.arange(50)

fig, ax = plt.subplots(nrows=1, ncols=2, figsize=(12, 16))
pred_mean = np.mean(predictions_3, axis=0)
pred_hpdi = hpdi(predictions_3, 0.9)
residuals_3 = dset.DivorceScaled.values - predictions_3
residuals_mean = np.mean(residuals_3, axis=0)
residuals_hpdi = hpdi(residuals_3, 0.9)
idx = np.argsort(residuals_mean)

# Plot posterior predictive
ax[0].plot(np.zeros(50), y, '--')
ax[0].errorbar(pred_mean[idx], y, xerr=pred_hpdi[1, idx] - pred_mean[idx],
marker='o', ms=5, mew=4, ls='none', alpha=0.8)
ax[0].plot(dset.DivorceScaled.values[idx], y, marker='o',
ls='none', color='gray', alpha=0.5)
ax[0].set(xlabel='Posterior Predictive', ylabel='State', title='Posterior Predictive with 90% CI')
ax[0].set_yticks(y)
ax[0].set_yticklabels(dset.Loc.values[idx], fontsize=10);

# Plot residuals
residuals_3 = dset.DivorceScaled.values - predictions_3
residuals_mean = np.mean(residuals_3, axis=0)
residuals_hpdi = hpdi(residuals_3, 0.9)
err = residuals_hpdi[1] - residuals_mean

ax[1].plot(np.zeros(50), y, '--')
ax[1].errorbar(residuals_mean[idx], y, xerr=err[idx],
marker='o', ms=5, mew=4, ls='none', alpha=0.8)
ax[1].set(xlabel='Residuals', ylabel='State', title='Residuals with 90% CI')
ax[1].set_yticks(y)
ax[1].set_yticklabels(dset.Loc.values[idx], fontsize=10);


The plot on the left shows the mean predictions with 90% CI for each of the states using Model 3. The gray markers indicate the actual observed divorce rates. The right plot shows the residuals for each of the states, and both these plots are sorted by the residuals, i.e. at the bottom, we are looking at states where the model predictions are higher than the observed rates, whereas at the top, the reverse is true.

Overall, the model fit seems good because most observed data points like within a 90% CI around the mean predictions. However, notice how the model over-predicts by a large margin for states like Idaho (bottom left), and on the other end under-predicts for states like Maine (top right). This is likely indicative of other factors that we are missing out in our model that affect divorce rate across different states. Even ignoring other socio-political variables, one such factor that we have not yet modeled is the measurement noise given by Divorce SE in the dataset. We will explore this in the next section.

## Regression Model with Measurement Error¶

Note that in our previous models, each data point influences the regression line equally. Is this well justified? We will build on the previous model to incorporate measurement error given by Divorce SE variable in the dataset. Incorporating measurement noise will be useful in ensuring that observations that have higher confidence (i.e. lower measurement noise) have a greater impact on the regression line. On the other hand, this will also help us better model outliers with high measurement errors. For more details on modeling errors due to measurement noise, refer to Chapter 15 of [1].

To do this, we will reuse Model 3, with the only change that the final observed value has a measurement error given by divorce_sd (notice that this has to be standardized since the divorce variable itself has been standardized to mean 0 and std 1).

[21]:

def model_se(marriage, age, divorce_sd, divorce=None):
a = sample('a', dist.Normal(0., 0.2))
bM = sample('bM', dist.Normal(0., 0.5))
M = bM * marriage
bA = sample('bA', dist.Normal(0., 0.5))
A = bA * age
sigma = sample('sigma', dist.Exponential(1.))
mu = a + M + A
divorce_rate = sample('divorce_rate', dist.Normal(mu, sigma))
sample('obs', dist.Normal(divorce_rate, divorce_sd), obs=divorce)

[22]:

rng, rng_ = random.split(rng)
# Standardize
dset['DivorceScaledSD'] = dset['Divorce SE'] / np.std(dset.Divorce.values)
init_params, potential_fn, constrain_fn = initialize_model(rng_, model_se,
marriage=dset.MarriageScaled.values,
age=dset.AgeScaled.values,
divorce_sd=dset.DivorceScaledSD.values,
divorce=dset.DivorceScaled.values)

[23]:

samples_4 = mcmc(num_warmup=1000,
num_samples=3000,
init_params=init_params,
potential_fn=potential_fn,
trajectory_length=10,
target_accept_prob=0.9,
constrain_fn=constrain_fn)

warmup: 100%|██████████| 1000/1000 [00:19<00:00, 50.19it/s, 15 steps of size 2.16e-01. acc. prob=0.89]
sample: 100%|██████████| 3000/3000 [00:06<00:00, 442.19it/s, 15 steps of size 2.16e-01. acc. prob=0.94]



mean         sd       5.5%      94.5%      n_eff       Rhat
a      -0.05       0.09      -0.20       0.09    2038.60       1.00
bA      -0.61       0.16      -0.86      -0.36    1304.97       1.00
bM       0.06       0.17      -0.21       0.32    1202.76       1.00
divorce_rate[0]       1.18       0.37       0.61       1.78    2914.40       1.00
divorce_rate[1]       0.69       0.56      -0.18       1.61    3036.44       1.00
divorce_rate[2]       0.44       0.34      -0.09       0.99    2751.97       1.00
divorce_rate[3]       1.43       0.47       0.72       2.19    2636.39       1.00
divorce_rate[4]      -0.91       0.13      -1.10      -0.69    3694.98       1.00
divorce_rate[5]       0.66       0.39       0.03       1.29    2417.58       1.00
divorce_rate[6]      -1.38       0.36      -1.91      -0.78    2419.38       1.00
divorce_rate[7]      -0.34       0.49      -1.05       0.52    2878.66       1.00
divorce_rate[8]      -1.88       0.61      -2.87      -0.92    2325.80       1.00
divorce_rate[9]      -0.63       0.17      -0.90      -0.36    3434.57       1.00
divorce_rate[10]       0.79       0.29       0.33       1.24    3073.11       1.00
divorce_rate[11]      -0.55       0.48      -1.33       0.21    2225.38       1.00
divorce_rate[12]       0.18       0.51      -0.62       0.98    1582.27       1.00
divorce_rate[13]      -0.88       0.24      -1.25      -0.49    3218.32       1.00
divorce_rate[14]       0.56       0.30       0.11       1.08    2781.10       1.00
divorce_rate[15]       0.30       0.38      -0.30       0.92    3856.13       1.00
divorce_rate[16]       0.51       0.43      -0.17       1.17    2894.34       1.00
divorce_rate[17]       1.28       0.35       0.74       1.86    2350.02       1.00
divorce_rate[18]       0.43       0.39      -0.19       1.06    3943.15       1.00
divorce_rate[19]       0.42       0.56      -0.51       1.28    2183.41       1.00
divorce_rate[20]      -0.55       0.32      -1.11      -0.09    4589.04       1.00
divorce_rate[21]      -1.10       0.27      -1.51      -0.66    2761.07       1.00
divorce_rate[22]      -0.27       0.26      -0.69       0.15    3116.06       1.00
divorce_rate[23]      -1.02       0.30      -1.51      -0.54    2862.98       1.00
divorce_rate[24]       0.42       0.41      -0.20       1.08    2684.21       1.00
divorce_rate[25]      -0.03       0.31      -0.51       0.47    3441.45       1.00
divorce_rate[26]      -0.02       0.51      -0.84       0.78    3055.50       1.00
divorce_rate[27]      -0.15       0.40      -0.84       0.43    3235.78       1.00
divorce_rate[28]      -0.25       0.50      -1.06       0.50    3082.51       1.00
divorce_rate[29]      -1.82       0.24      -2.20      -1.42    3257.91       1.00
divorce_rate[30]       0.18       0.43      -0.52       0.86    3313.66       1.00
divorce_rate[31]      -1.68       0.16      -1.90      -1.40    4064.16       1.00
divorce_rate[32]       0.12       0.25      -0.29       0.50    4290.90       1.00
divorce_rate[33]      -0.06       0.52      -0.86       0.79    2377.41       1.00
divorce_rate[34]      -0.12       0.23      -0.50       0.25    3469.95       1.00
divorce_rate[35]       1.30       0.41       0.62       1.94    4010.12       1.00
divorce_rate[36]       0.24       0.36      -0.36       0.78    3027.63       1.00
divorce_rate[37]      -1.03       0.23      -1.41      -0.68    2514.34       1.00
divorce_rate[38]      -0.92       0.54      -1.76      -0.04    3213.07       1.00
divorce_rate[39]      -0.68       0.33      -1.25      -0.18    3886.84       1.00
divorce_rate[40]       0.24       0.54      -0.64       1.08    3382.34       1.00
divorce_rate[41]       0.75       0.34       0.19       1.26    2296.12       1.00
divorce_rate[42]       0.20       0.18      -0.09       0.49    3702.43       1.00
divorce_rate[43]       0.80       0.42       0.20       1.54    1972.67       1.00
divorce_rate[44]      -0.40       0.53      -1.30       0.37    2667.52       1.00
divorce_rate[45]      -0.40       0.26      -0.79       0.02    4442.22       1.00
divorce_rate[46]       0.14       0.32      -0.35       0.65    2787.84       1.00
divorce_rate[47]       0.57       0.48      -0.18       1.33    3707.70       1.00
divorce_rate[48]      -0.64       0.28      -1.09      -0.19    3715.53       1.00
divorce_rate[49]       0.86       0.63      -0.08       1.91    2467.73       1.00
sigma       0.60       0.11       0.42       0.76     873.39       1.00


### Effect of Incorporating Measurement Noise on Residuals¶

Notice that our values for the regression coefficients is very similar to Model 3. However, introducing measurement noise allows us to more closely match our predictive distributions to the observed values. We can see this if we plot the residuals as earlier.

[24]:

rng, rng_ = random.split(rng)
predict_fn = vmap(lambda rng, samples: predict(rng, samples, model_se,
marriage=dset.MarriageScaled.values,
age=dset.AgeScaled.values,
divorce_sd=dset.DivorceScaledSD.values))
predictions_4 = predict_fn(random.split(rng_, 3000), samples_4)

[25]:

sd = dset.DivorceScaledSD.values
residuals_4 = dset.DivorceScaled.values - predictions_4
residuals_mean = np.mean(residuals_4, axis=0)
residuals_hpdi = hpdi(residuals_4, 0.9)
err = residuals_hpdi[1] - residuals_mean
idx = np.argsort(residuals_mean)
y = np.arange(50)
fig, ax = plt.subplots(nrows=1, ncols=1, figsize=(6, 16))

# Plot Residuals
ax.plot(np.zeros(50), y, '--')
ax.errorbar(residuals_mean[idx], y, xerr=err[idx],
marker='o', ms=5, mew=4, ls='none', alpha=0.4)

# Plot SD
ax.errorbar(residuals_mean[idx], y, xerr=sd[idx],
ls='none')

# Plot earlier mean residual
ax.plot(np.mean(dset.DivorceScaled.values - predictions_3, 0)[idx], y,
ls='none', marker='o', ms=5, color='gray', alpha=0.8)

ax.set(xlabel='Residuals', ylabel='State', title='Residuals with 90% CI')
ax.set_yticks(y)
ax.set_yticklabels(dset.Loc.values[idx], fontsize=10);


The plot above shows the residuals for each of the states, along with the measurement noise given by inner error bar. The gray dots are the mean residuals from our earlier Model 3. Notice how having an additional degree of freedom to model the measurement noise has shrunk the residuals. In particular, for Idaho and Maine, our predictions are now much closer to the observed values after incorporating measurement noise in the model.

To better see how measurement noise affects the movement of the regression line, let us plot the residuals with respect to the measurement noise.

[26]:

fig, ax = plt.subplots(nrows=1, ncols=1, figsize=(10, 6))
x = dset.DivorceScaledSD.values
y1 = np.mean(residuals_3, 0)
y2 = np.mean(residuals_4, 0)
ax.plot(x, y1, ls='none', marker='o')
ax.plot(x, y2, ls='none', marker='o')
for i, (j, k)  in enumerate(zip(y1, y2)):
ax.plot([x[i], x[i]], [j, k], '--', color='gray');

ax.set(xlabel='Measurement Noise', ylabel='Residual', title='Mean residuals (Model 4: red, Model 3: blue)');


The plot above shows what has happend in more detail - the regression line itself has moved to ensure a better fit for observations with low measurement noise (left of the plot) where the residuals have shrunk very close to 0. That is to say that data points with low measurement error have a concomitantly higher contribution in determining the regression line. On the other hand, for states with high measurement error (right of the plot), incorporating measurement noise allows us to move our posterior distribution mass closer to the observations resulting in a shrinkage of residuals as well.

## References¶

1. McElreath, R. (2016). Statistical Rethinking: A Bayesian Course with Examples in R and Stan CRC Press.
2. Stan Development Team. Stan User’s Guide
3. Goodman, N.D., and StuhlMueller, A. (2014). The Design and Implementation of Probabilistic Programming Languages
4. Pyro Development Team. Poutine: A Guide to Programming with Effect Handlers in Pyro
5. Hoffman, M.D., Gelman, A. (2011). The No-U-Turn Sampler: Adaptively Setting Path Lengths in Hamiltonian Monte Carlo.
6. Betancourt, M. (2017). A Conceptual Introduction to Hamiltonian Monte Carlo.
7. JAX Development Team (2018). Composable transformations of Python+NumPy programs: differentiate, vectorize, JIT to GPU/TPU, and more