Reassessing Schoenfeld Residual Tests of Proportional Hazards in Political Science Event History Analyses

Bibliographic Data

ID6231329
AuthorsSunhee Park (0000-0001-6008-9236, Aarhus University), David J Hendry (0000-0001-6873-6987, Aarhus University)
Year2015
Volume59
Issue4
Pages1072-1087
Publication date2015-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0092-5853 • E-ISSN: 1540-5907
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/ajps.12176
OpenAlexW1819957961
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited44

An underlying assumption of proportional hazards models is that the effect of a change in a covariate on the hazard rate of event occurrence is constant over time. For scholars using the Cox model, a Schoenfeld residual‐based test has become the disciplinary standard for detecting violations of this assumption. However, using this test requires researchers to make a choice about a transformation of the time scale. In practice, this choice has largely consisted of arbitrary decisions made without justification. Using replications and simulations, we demonstrate that the decision about time transformations can have profound implications for the conclusions reached. In particular, we show that researchers can make far more informed decisions by paying closer attention to the presence of outlier survival times and levels of censoring in their data. We suggest a new standard for best practices in Cox diagnostics that buttresses the current standard with in‐depth exploratory data analysis

Algorithm · Censoring (clinical trials · Covariate · Econometrics · Event data · Outlier · Proportional hazards model · Residual · Statistics · Test (biology · Computer Science · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Mathematics · Political Conflict and Governance · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research

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