This book brings together expert researchers engaged in Monte-Carlo simulation-based statistical modeling, offering them a forum to present and discuss recent issues in methodological development as well as public health applications. It is divided into three parts, with the first providing an overview of Monte-Carlo techniques, the second focusing on missing data Monte-Carlo methods, and the third addressing Bayesian and general statistical modeling using Monte-Carlo simulations. The data and computer programs used here will also be made publicly available, allowing readers to replicate the model development and data analysis presented in each chapter, and to readily apply them in their own research. Featuring highly topical content, the book has the potential to impact model development and data analyses across a wide spectrum of fields, and to spark further research in this direction.

When learning very formal material one comes to a stage where one thinks one has understood the material. Confronted with a "realiife" problem, the passivity of this understanding sometimes becomes painfully elear. To be able to solve the problem, ideas, methods, etc. need to be ready at hand. They must be mastered (become active knowledge) in order to employ them successfully. Starting from this idea, the leitmotif, or aim, of this book has been to elose this gap as much as possible. How can this be done? The material presented here was born out of a series of lectures at the Summer School held at Figueira da Foz (Portugal) in 1987. The series of lectures was split into two concurrent parts. In one part the "formal material" was presented. Since the background of those attending varied widely, the presentation of the formal material was kept as pedagogic as possible. In the formal part the general ideas behind the Monte Carlo method were developed. The Monte Carlo method has now found widespread appli cation in many branches of science such as physics, chemistry, and biology. Because of this, the scope of the lectures had to be narrowed down. We could not give a complete account and restricted the treatment to the ap plication of the Monte Carlo method to the physics of phase transitions. Here particular emphasis is placed on finite-size effects.

Essentials of Monte Carlo Simulation focuses on the fundamentals of Monte Carlo methods using basic computer simulation techniques. The theories presented in this text deal with systems that are too complex to solve analytically. As a result, readers are given a system of interest and constructs using computer code, as well as algorithmic models to emulate how the system works internally. After the models are run several times, in a random sample way, the data for each output variable(s) of interest is analyzed by ordinary statistical methods. This book features 11 comprehensive chapters, and discusses such key topics as random number generators, multivariate random variates, and continuous random variates. Over 100 numerical examples are presented as part of the appendix to illustrate useful real world applications. The text also contains an easy to read presentation with minimal use of difficult mathematical concepts. Very little has been published in the area of computer Monte Carlo simulation methods, and this book will appeal to students and researchers in the fields of Mathematics and Statistics.

Taking the topics of a quantitative methodology course and illustrating them through Monte Carlo simulation, this book examines abstract principles, such as bias, efficiency, and measures of uncertainty in an intuitive, visual way. Instead of thinking in the abstract about what would happen to a particular estimator "in repeated samples," the book uses simulation to actually create those repeated samples and summarize the results. The book includes basic examples appropriate for readers learning the material for the first time, as well as more advanced examples that a researcher might use to evaluate an estimator he or she was using in an actual research project. The book also covers a wide range of topics related to Monte Carlo simulation, such as resampling methods, simulations of substantive theory, simulation of quantities of interest (QI) from model results, and cross-validation. Complete R code from all examples is provided so readers can replicate every analysis presented using R.

This highly accessible and innovative text with supporting web site uses Excel (R) to teach the core concepts of econometrics without advanced mathematics. It enables students to use Monte Carlo simulations in order to understand the data generating process and sampling distribution. Intelligent repetition of concrete examples effectively conveys the properties of the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimator and the nature of heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation. Coverage includes omitted variables, binary response models, basic time series, and simultaneous equations. The authors teach students how to construct their own real-world data sets drawn from the internet, which they can analyze with Excel (R) or with other econometric software. The accompanying web site with text support can be found at www.wabash.edu/econometrics.

This updated edition deals with the Monte Carlo simulation of complex physical systems encountered in condensed-matter physics, statistical mechanics, and related fields. It contains many applications, examples, and exercises to help the reader. It is an excellent guide for graduate students and researchers who use computer simulations in their research.

We have sold 4300 copies worldwide of the first edition (1999). This new edition contains five completely new chapters covering new developments.