Parameter estimation of beta-geometric model with application to human fecundability data

Abstract

The present study deals with the estimation of the mean value of fecundability by fitting a theoretical distribution from the observed month of first conception of the married women who did not use any contraceptive method before their first conception. It is assumed that fecundability is fixed for a given couple, but across couples it varies according to a specified distribution. Under the classical approach, methods of moment and maximum likelihood are used while for Bayesian approach we use the above two estimates as prior for fecundability parameter. A real data analysis from the third National Family Health Survey (NFHS-III) is analyzed as an application of model. Finally, a simulation study is performed to access the performance of the several of methods used in this paper