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Likelihood Ratio

A quantity used to test Nested Hypotheses. Let $H'$ be a Nested Hypothesis with $n'$ Degrees of Freedom within $H$ (which has $n$ Degrees of Freedom), then calculate the Maximum Likelihood of a given outcome, first given $H'$, then given $H$. Then

\begin{displaymath}
{\rm LR} = {\hbox{[likelihood H']}\over\hbox{[likelihood H]}}.
\end{displaymath}

Comparison of this ratio to the critical value of the Chi-Squared Distribution with $n-n'$ Degrees of Freedom then gives the Significance of the increase in Likelihood.


The term likelihood ratio is also used (especially in medicine) to test nonnested complementary hypotheses as follows,

\begin{displaymath}
{\rm LR} = {\hbox{[true positive rate]}\over\hbox{[false pos...
...rate]}}
= {\hbox{[sensitivity]}\over 1-\hbox{[specificity]}}.
\end{displaymath}

See also Negative Likelihood Ratio, Sensitivity, Specificity




© 1996-9 Eric W. Weisstein
1999-05-25