Design and Structure Dependent Priors for Scale Parameters in Latent Gaussian Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Gardini, Aldo, Greco, Fedele, Trivisano, Carlo
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2022
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author Gardini, Aldo
Greco, Fedele
Trivisano, Carlo
author_facet Gardini, Aldo
Greco, Fedele
Trivisano, Carlo
contents Many common correlation structures assumed for data can be described through latent Gaussian models. When Bayesian inference is carried out, it is required to set the prior distribution for scale parameters that rules the model components, possibly allowing to incorporate prior information. This task is particularly delicate and many contributions in the literature are devoted to investigating such aspects. We focus on the fact that the scale parameter controls the prior variability of the model component in a complex way since its dispersion is also affected by the correlation structure and the design. To overcome this issue that might confound the prior elicitation step, we propose to let the user specify the marginal prior of a measure of dispersion of the model component, integrating out the scale parameter, the structure and the design. Then, we analytically derive the implied prior for the scale parameter. Results from a simulation study, aimed at showing the behavior of the estimators sampling properties under the proposed prior elicitation strategy, are discussed. Lastly, some real data applications are explored to investigate prior sensitivity and allocation of explained variance among model components.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2212_09544
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Design and Structure Dependent Priors for Scale Parameters in Latent Gaussian Models
Gardini, Aldo
Greco, Fedele
Trivisano, Carlo
Methodology
Statistics Theory
Many common correlation structures assumed for data can be described through latent Gaussian models. When Bayesian inference is carried out, it is required to set the prior distribution for scale parameters that rules the model components, possibly allowing to incorporate prior information. This task is particularly delicate and many contributions in the literature are devoted to investigating such aspects. We focus on the fact that the scale parameter controls the prior variability of the model component in a complex way since its dispersion is also affected by the correlation structure and the design. To overcome this issue that might confound the prior elicitation step, we propose to let the user specify the marginal prior of a measure of dispersion of the model component, integrating out the scale parameter, the structure and the design. Then, we analytically derive the implied prior for the scale parameter. Results from a simulation study, aimed at showing the behavior of the estimators sampling properties under the proposed prior elicitation strategy, are discussed. Lastly, some real data applications are explored to investigate prior sensitivity and allocation of explained variance among model components.
title Design and Structure Dependent Priors for Scale Parameters in Latent Gaussian Models
topic Methodology
Statistics Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.09544