The reliable analysis of interval data (coarsened data) is one of the
most promising applications of imprecise probabilities in statistics. If one
refrains from making untestable, and often materially unjustified, strong
assumptions on the coarsening process, then the empirical distribution
of the data is imprecise, and statistical models are, in Manski’s terms,
partially identified. We first elaborate some subtle differences between
two natural ways of handling interval data in the dependent variable of
regression models, distinguishing between two different types of identification
regions, called Sharp Marrow Region (SMR) and Sharp Collection
Region (SCR) here. Focusing on the case of linear regression analysis, we
then derive some fundamental geometrical properties of SMR and SCR,
allowing a comparison of the regions and providing some guidelines for
their canonical construction.
Relying on the algebraic framework of adjunctions of two mappings between
partially ordered sets, we characterize SMR as a right adjoint and
as the monotone kernel of a criterion function based mapping, while SCR
is indeed interpretable as the corresponding monotone hull. Finally we
sketch some ideas on a compromise between SMR and SCR based on a
set-domained loss function.
This paper is an extended version of a shorter paper with the same title,
that is conditionally accepted for publication in the Proceedings of
the Eighth International Symposium on Imprecise Probability: Theories
and Applications. In the present paper we added proofs and the seventh
chapter with a small Monte-Carlo-Illustration, that would have made the
original paper too long