All,
Thanks to Al for directing me to his presentation on numerical
integration methods. I think that I figured out how to manipulate the
bounds of integration in the Mata function nwspgr() based on Al's
discussion on the Stata command integ. nwspgr() (available in a zip
file at http://sparse-grids.de/#Stata) creates a matrix (call it x) and
a column vector (call it w) that can be used to approximate an integral
defined as a Mata function. I can manipulate the bounds of integration
by manipulating the x matrix prior to multiplying it by the weighting
matrix. I've pasted a sample program below with two simple integrals
(that have analytical solutions) and run them through some simulations
(not shown). My integral is of one dimension so I have not played much
with the nwspgr()'s ability to handle integrals of higher dimensions.
With one dimension, for all lower and upper bounds and a variety of
integrals, nwspgr() gives approximation errors no more than 10^-7. I've
also tried integrals without analytical solutions and compared to
Mathematica with similarly precise approximations.
This may have been clear to those who know more about numerical
integration than I but it was new to me. Take care,
Bob
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
cap mata: mata drop g()
cap mata: mata drop h()
mata:
real colvector g(real matrix x){
return( x:^4 )
}
real colvector h(real matrix x){
return( normalden(x) )
}
a = -1 // lower bound of integration
b = 2 // upper bound of integration
D = 1 // dimensions of integration
k = 25 // accuracy level of approximation
nw = nwspgr("KPU", D, k)
x = nw[.,1..D]:*(b-a) :+ a
w = nw[.,D+1]
trueval = (1/5)*b^5 - (1/5)*a^5
approx = g(x)'*w*(b-a)
error = sqrt((approx - trueval):^2):/trueval
printf("True Value = %10.0g, Approximation = %10.0g, Approximation
Error = %10.0g\n",trueval,approx,error)
trueval = normal(b) - normal(a)
approx = h(x)'*w*(b-a)
error = sqrt((approx - trueval):^2):/trueval
printf("True Value = %10.0g, Approximation = %10.0g, Approximation
Error = %10.0g\n",trueval,approx,error)
end
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Feiveson, Alan H. (JSC-SK311) wrote:
Bob - Try looking at http://www.stata.com/meeting/3nasug/abstracts.html
Al Feiveson
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bob Hammond
Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 4:24 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: st: Maximize a function that contains an integral
All,
I want to find the maximum of a function that contains an integral without an analytical solution. The difficulty is that the argument of the maximization is the lower bound of the integral.
The most promising approach that I've found seems to be "Quadrature on sparse grids":
http://sparse-grids.de/#Stata
which contains a Mata function nwspgr() in a zip file. I've spent some time with this function and it's very accurate but I cannot figure out how to manipulate the integration bounds such that the lower bound is a variable that I can feed in from an optimizer such as Mata's optimize.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Hammond
Department of Economics
North Carolina State University
Office: (919) 513-2871
Fax: (919) 515-7873
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~rghammon/
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