The COUNTREG Procedure

The INIT statement sets initial values for parameters in the optimization.

Each initvalue is written as a parameter or parameter list, followed by an optional equal sign (=), followed by a number:

parameter <=> number

For continuous regressors, the names of the parameters are the same as the corresponding variables. For a regressor that is a CLASS variable, the parameter name combines the corresponding CLASS variable name with the variable level. For interaction and nested regressors, the parameter names combine the names of each regressor. The names of the parameters can be seen in the OUTEST= data set. By default, initial values are determined by OLS regression. Initial values can be displayed with the ITPRINT option in the PROC statement.

If you also specify the BAYES statement, the INIT statement also initializes the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm. In particular, the INIT statement does one of the following: