The MCMC Procedure

Displayed Output

This section describes the output that PROC MCMC displays. For a quick reference of all ODS table names, see the section ODS Table Names. ODS tables are arranged under four groups, which are listed in the following sections: Model and Data Related ODS Tables, Sampling Related ODS Tables, Posterior Statistics Related ODS Tables, Convergence Diagnostics Related ODS Tables, and Optimization Related ODS Tables.

Model and Data Related ODS Tables

Missing Data Information Table

The Missing Data Information table (ODS table name MISSDATAINFO) displays the name of the response variable that contains missing values, the number of missing observations, the corresponding observation indices in the input data set, and the sampling method used in the simulation for the missing values.

Number of Observation Table

The NObs table (ODS table name NOBS) shows the number of observations that is in the data set and the number of observations that is used in the analysis. By default, observations with missing values are not used (see the section Handling of Missing Data for more details). This table is displayed by default.

Parameters

The Parameters table (ODS table name Parameters) shows the name of each parameter, the block number of each parameter, the sampling method used for the block, the initial values, and the prior or hyperprior distributions. This table is displayed by default.

REObsInfo

The Random Effect Observation Information table (ODS table name REObsInfo) lists the name of the random effect, each subject value, the number of observations in each subject, and their corresponding observation indices in the input data set. You can request this table by specifying the REOBSINFO option.

REParameters

The REParameters table (ODS table name REParameters) lists the name of the random effect, sampling algorithm, the subject variable, the number of subjects, unique values of the subject variable, and the prior distribution. This table is displayed by default if a RANDOM statement is used in the program.

Sampling Related ODS Tables

Burn-In History

The Burn-In History table (ODS table name BurnInHistory) shows the scales and acceptance rates for each parameter block in the burn-in phase. The table is not displayed by default and can be requested by specifying the option MCHISTORY=BRIEF | DETAILED.

Parameters Initial Value Table

The Parameters Initial table (ODS table name ParametersInit) shows the value of each parameter after the tuning phase. This table is not displayed by default and can be requested by specifying the option INIT=PINIT.

Posterior Samples

The Posterior Samples table (ODS table name PosteriorSample) stores posterior draws of all parameters. It is not printed by PROC MCMC. You can create an ODS output data set of the chain by specifying the following:

   ODS OUTPUT PosteriorSample = SAS-data-set; 
Sampling History

The Sampling History table (ODS table name SamplingHistory) shows the scales and acceptance rates for each parameter block in the main sampling phase. The table is not displayed by default and can be requested by specifying the option MCHISTORY=BRIEF | DETAILED.

Tuning Covariance

The Tuning Covariance table (ODS table name TuneCov) shows the proposal covariance matrices for each parameter block after the tuning phase. The table is not displayed by default and can be requested by specifying the option INIT=PINIT. For more details about proposal tuning, see the section Tuning the Proposal Distribution.

Tuning History

The Tuning History table (ODS table name TuningHistory) shows the number of tuning phases used in establishing the proposal distribution. The table also displays the scales and acceptance rates for each parameter block at each of the tuning phases. For more information about the self-adapting proposal tuning algorithm used by PROC MCMC, see the section Tuning the Proposal Distribution. The table is not displayed by default and can be requested by specifying the option MCHISTORY=BRIEF | DETAILED.

Tuning Probability Vector

The Tuning Probability table (ODS table name TuneP) shows the proposal probability vector for each discrete parameter block (when the option DISCRETE=GEO is specified and the geometric proposal distribution is used for discrete parameters) after the tuning phase. The table is not displayed by default and can be requested by specifying the option INIT=PINIT. For more information about proposal tuning, see the section Tuning the Proposal Distribution.

Posterior Statistics Related ODS Tables

PROC MCMC calculates some essential posterior statistics and outputs them to a number of ODS tables that you can request and save individually. For details of the calculations, see the section Summary Statistics.

Summary Statistics

The Posterior Summaries table (ODS table name PostSummaries) contains basic statistics for each parameter. The table lists the number of posterior samples, the posterior mean and standard deviation estimates, and the percentile estimates. This table is displayed by default.

Correlation Matrix

The Posterior Correlation Matrix table (ODS table name Corr) contains the posterior correlation of model parameters. The table is not displayed by default and can be requested by specifying the option STATS=CORR.

Covariance Matrix

The Posterior Covariance Matrix table (ODS table name Cov) contains the posterior covariance of model parameters. The table is not displayed by default and can be requested by specifying the option STATISTICS=COV.

Deviance Information Criterion

The Deviance Information Criterion table (ODS table name DIC) contains the DIC of the model. The table is not displayed by default and can be requested by specifying the option DIC. For details of the calculations, see the section Deviance Information Criterion (DIC).

Interval Statistics

The Posterior Intervals table (ODS table name PostIntervals) contains the equal-tail and highest posterior density (HPD) interval estimates for each parameter. The default $\alpha $ value is 0.05, and you can change it to other levels by using the STATISTICS= option. This table is displayed by default.

Convergence Diagnostics Related ODS Tables

PROC MCMC has convergence diagnostic tests that check for Markov chain convergence. PROC MCMC produces a number of ODS tables that you can request and save individually. For details in calculation, see the section Statistical Diagnostic Tests.

Autocorrelation

The Autocorrelations table (ODS table name AUTOCORR) contains the first order autocorrelations of the posterior samples for each parameter. The Parameter column states the name of the parameter. By default, PROC MCMC displays lag 1, 5, 10, and 50 estimates of the autocorrelations. You can request different autocorrelations by using the DIAGNOSTICS = AUTOCORR(LAGS=) option. This table is displayed by default.

Effective Sample Size

The Effective Sample Sizes table (ODS table name ESS) calculates the effective sample size of each parameter. See the section Effective Sample Size for more details. The table is displayed by default.

Monte Carlo Standard Errors

The Monte Carlo Standard Errors table (ODS table name MCSE) calculates the standard errors of the posterior mean estimate. See the section Standard Error of the Mean Estimate for more details. The table is displayed by default.

Geweke Diagnostics

The Geweke Diagnostics table (ODS table name Geweke) lists the result of the Geweke diagnostic test. See the section Geweke Diagnostics for more details. The table is displayed by default.

Heidelberger-Welch Diagnostics

The Heidelberger-Welch Diagnostics table (ODS table name Heidelberger) lists the result of the Heidelberger-Welch diagnostic test. The test is consisted of two parts: a stationary test and a half-width test. See the section Heidelberger and Welch Diagnostics for more details. The table is not displayed by default and can be requested by specifying DIAGNOSTICS = HEIDEL.

Raftery-Lewis Diagnostics

The Raftery-Lewis Diagnostics table (ODS table name Raftery) lists the result of the Raftery-Lewis diagnostic test. See the section Raftery and Lewis Diagnostics for more details. The table is not displayed by default and can be requested by specifying DIAGNOSTICS = RAFTERY.

Summary Statistics for Prediction

The Posterior Summaries for Prediction table (ODS table name PredSummaries) contains basic statistics for each prediction. The table lists the number of posterior samples, the posterior mean and standard deviation estimates, and the percentile estimates. This table is displayed by default if any PREDDIST statement is used in the program.

Interval Statistics for Prediction

The Posterior Intervals for Prediction table (ODS table name PredIntervals) contains the equal-tail and highest posterior density (HPD) interval estimates for each prediction. The default $\alpha $ value is 0.05, and you can change it to other levels by using the STATISTICS option in a PREDDIST statement, or the STATISTICS= option in the PROC MCMC statement if the option is not specified in a statement. This table is displayed by default if any PREDDIST statement is used in the program.

Optimization Related ODS Tables

PROC MCMC can perform optimization on the joint posterior distribution. This is requested by the PROPCOV= option. The most commonly used optimization method is the quasi-Newton method: PROPCOV=QUANEW(ITPRINT). The ITPRINT option displays the ODS tables, listed as follows:

Input Options

The Input Options table (ODS table name InputOptions) lists optimization options used in the procedure.

Optimization Start

The Optimization Start table (ODS table name ProblemDescription) shows the initial state of the optimization.

Iteration History

The Iteration History table (ODS table name IterHist) shows iteration history of the optimization.

Optimization Results

The Optimization Results table (ODS table name IterStop) shows the results of the optimization, includes information about the number of function calls, and the optimized objective function, which is the joint log posterior density.

Convergence Status

The Convergence Status table (ODS table name ConvergenceStatus) shows whether the convergence criterion is satisfied.

Parameters Value After Optimization Table

The Parameter Values After Optimization table (ODS table name OptiEstimates) lists the parameter values that maximize the joint log posterior. These are the maximum a posteriori point estimates, and they are used to start the Markov chain.

Covariance Matrix After Optimization Table

The Proposal Covariance table (ODS table name OptiCov) lists covariance matrices for each block parameter by using quadrature approximation at the posterior mode. These covariance matrices are used in the proposal distribution.