Statistical inference in constrained latent class models for multinomial data based on ϕ-divergence measures

In this paper we explore the possibilities of applying ϕ$$\phi $$-divergence measures in inferential problems in the field of latent class models (LCMs) for multinomial data. We first treat the problem of estimating the model parameters. As explained below, minimum ϕ$$\phi $$-divergence estimators (Mϕ$$\phi $$Es) considered in this paper are a natural extension of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE), the usual estimator for this problem; we …