Transformations for Semi-Continuous Data

32 Pages Posted: 15 Jan 2007

See all articles by Galit Shmueli

Galit Shmueli

Institute of Service Science, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan

Wolfgang Jank

University of Maryland - Decision and Information Technologies Department

Valerie Hyde

University of Maryland

Date Written: November 1, 2006

Abstract

Semi-continuous data arise in many applications where naturally-continuous data become contaminated by the data generating mechanism. The resulting data contain several values that are too frequent, and in that sense are a hybrid between discrete and continuous data. The main problem is that standard statistical methods, which are geared towards continuous or discrete data,cannot be applied adequately to semi-continuous data. We propose a new set of two transformations for semi-continuous data that iron-out the too-frequent values thereby transforming the data to completely continuous. We show that the transformed data maintain the properties of the original data, but are suitable for standard analysis. The transformations and their performance are illustrated using simulated data and real auction data from the online auction site eBay.

Keywords: data tranformation, too-frequent values, jittering, local-regeneration, max-bin histogram, online auction, eBay

Suggested Citation

Shmueli, Galit and Jank, Wolfgang and Hyde, Valerie, Transformations for Semi-Continuous Data (November 1, 2006). Robert H. Smith School Research Paper No. RHS 06-051, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=956938 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.956938

Galit Shmueli (Contact Author)

Institute of Service Science, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan ( email )

Hsinchu, 30013
Taiwan

HOME PAGE: http://www.iss.nthu.edu.tw

Wolfgang Jank

University of Maryland - Decision and Information Technologies Department ( email )

Robert H. Smith School of Business
4300 Van Munching Hall
College Park, MD 20742
United States
301-405-1118 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.smith.umd.edu/faculty/wjank/

Valerie Hyde

University of Maryland ( email )

College Park
College Park, MD 20742
United States

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