Max Rady College of Medicine

Concept: Tobit Regression

 Printer friendly

Concept Description

Last Updated: 1999-11-01

Introduction

    A special type of regression known as Tobit regression is used to handle the truncation at zero. This regression is used for the analysis of social support income, defined as the sum of Canada Pension and 'income from other government sources'. Tobit regression assumes the data are truncated, or censored, above or below certain values. The technique is similar to survival analysis in that it uses a censoring value to stand in for an indeterminate quantity. In fact, it is run using one of the procedures in SAS designed for the analysis of survival data.

    The parameter estimates resulting from a Tobit regression are not interpretable in the same way that those from a linear regression are. Techniques are available which decompose the parameter estimates in two parts: the effect of the probability being above zero, and the effect on the mean income given that it is above zero.

Related concepts 

Related terms 

Keywords 

  • statistics


Request information in an accessible format

If you require access to our resources in a different format, please contact us:

We strive to provide accommodations upon request in a reasonable timeframe.

Contact us

Manitoba Centre for Health Policy
Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine,
Rady Faculty of Health Sciences,
Room 408-727 McDermot Ave.
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, MB R3E 3P5 Canada

204-789-3819