Inference for a Nonlinear Counting Process Regression Model

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Martingale and counting process techniques are applied to the problem of inference for general conditional hazard functions. This problem was first studied by Beran, who introduced a class of estimators for the conditional cumulative hazard and survival functions in the special case of time-independent covariates. Here the covariate can be time dependent; the classical i.i.d. assumptions are relaxed by replacing them with certain asymptotic stability assumptions, and models involving recurrent failures are included. This is done within the framework of a general nonparametric counting process regression model. Important examples of the model include right-censored survival data, semi-Markov processes, an illness-death process with duration dependence, and age-dependent birth and death processes.