• Journal of the Korean Statistical Society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.201-217
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• 2000

The method of generalized estimating equations (GEE) has become very popular for the analysis of longitudinal data. We extend this work to the use of M-estimators; the resultant regression estimates are robust to heavy tailed errors and to outliers. The proposed method does not require correct specification of the dependence structure between observation, and allows for heterogeneity of the error. However, an estimate of the dependence structure may be incorporated, and if it is correct this guarantees a higher efficiency for the regression estimators. A goodness-of-fit test for checking the adequacy of the assumed M-estimation regression model is also provided. Simulation studies are conducted to show the finite-sample performance of the new methods. The proposed methods are applied to a real-life data set.