Weighted rank estimation for nonparametric transformation models with doubly truncated data

Doubly truncated data often arise when event times are observed only if they fall within subject-specific intervals. We analyze doubly truncated data using nonparametric transformation models, where an unknown monotonically increasing transformation of the response variable is equal to an unknown monotonically increasing function of a linear combination of the covariates plus a random error with an unspecified log-concave probability density function. Furthermore, we assume that the truncation variables are conditionally independent of the response variable given the covariates and leave the conditional distributions of truncation variables given the covariates unspecified. For estimation of regression parameters, we propose a weighted rank (WR) estimation procedure and establish the consistency and asymptotic normality of the resulting estimator. The limiting covariance matrix of the WR estimator can be estimated by a resampling technique, which does not involve nonparametric density estimation or numerical derivatives. A numerical study is conducted and suggests that the proposed methodology works well in practice, and an illustration based on real data is provided.