Interpreting Hazard Rate Models

Abstract

Hazard rate models are found with increasing frequency in the social science literature. Although such models hold considerable potential for answering difficult research questions, the substantive meaning of coefficients from hazard rate models is not always immediately obvious. In order to aid in the substantive interpretation of hazard rate models, the authors suggest that associated survival functions and related quantities be calculated. Several examples are provided where results using survival functions and discrete transition probabilities enrich the substantive conclusions reached based on hazard rate coefficients alone.