An Elegant Method for Generating Multivariate Poisson Data

Publication Type:

Report

Source:

(2007)

Other Number:

arXiv:0710.5670

URL:

http://eprintweb.org/S/article/stat/0710.5670

Abstract:

Generating multivariate Poisson data is essential in many applications. Current simulation methods suffer from limitations ranging from computational complexity to restrictions on the structure of the correlation matrix. We propose a computationally efficient and conceptually appealing method for generating multivariate Poisson data. The method is based on simulating multivariate Normal data and converting them to achieve a specific correlation matrix and Poisson rate vector. This allows for generating data that have positive or negative correlations as well as different rates.