Skip to main content

Local Posterior Robustness with Parametric Priors: Maximum and Average Sensitivity

  • Chapter
Maximum Entropy and Bayesian Methods

Part of the book series: Fundamental Theories of Physics ((FTPH,volume 62))

Abstract

The local sensitivity of a posterior quantity ρ(P) to the choice of the prior P is considered. When the prior Pλ is indexed by parameter λ, a natural measure is the total derivative of ρ(P λ) w.r.t. λ. Total derivative, however, is direction specific. To measure the local sensitivity of ρ(P λ) to specification of λ, one may either use the norm (maximum over all directions) of the total derivative or alternatively, the average sensitivity which evaluates the average of this total derivative over all directions. Simple expressions are given for the maximum and average sensitivity which make their evaluations very easy. Discussion and several examples illustrate implications of these ideas.

Research supported in part by ONR Grant number N00014-93-1-0174.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Basu, S., Jammalamadaka, S.R., and Liu, W. (1993), “Qualitative robustness and stability of posterior distributions and posterior quantities”, Technical Report, 238, Department of Statistics and Applied Probability, University of California, Santa Barbara.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Basu, S. and DasGupta, A. (1992), “Bayesian analysis with distribution bands: the role of the loss function”, verbally accepted in Statist. and Decisions

    Google Scholar 

  3. Berger, J. (1993), “An overview of robust Bayesian analysis”, Technical Report, 93–53, Department of Statistics, Purdue University.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Diaconis, P. and Freedman, D. (1986), “On the consistency of Bayes estimates”, Ann. Statist., 14, 1–67.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Hampel, F.R. (1971), “A general qualitative definition of r•bustness”, Ann. Math. Statist., 42, 1887–1896.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Huber, P.J. (1981), Robust Statistics, John Wiley: New York.

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  7. MacRae, E.0 (1974), “Matrix derivatives with an application to an adaptive linear decision problem”, Ann. Statist., 2, 337–346.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Polasek, W. (1985), “A dual approach for matrix-derivatives”, Metrika, 32, 275292.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Rao, C.R. (1973), Linear statistical inference and its applications,Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Rivier, N., Englman, R., and Levine, R. D. (1990), “Constructing priors in maximum entropy methods”, In Maximum Entropy and Bayesian Methods, Rivier, N., Englman, R., and Levine, R. D (Ed.), 233–242, Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Rodriguez, C.C. (1994), “Bayesian robustness: a new look from geometry”, to appear in Maximum Entropy and Bayesian Statistics, G. Heidbreder ( Ed. ), Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Rudin, W. (1976), Principles of mathematical analysis,McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Ruggeri, F. and Wasserman, L. (1993), “Infinitesimal sensitivity of posterior distributions”, Canad. J. Statist., 21, 195–203.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  14. Skilling, J. (1990), “Quantified maximum entropy”, In Maximum Entropy and Bayesian Methods, Skilling, J (Ed.), 341–350, Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Srinivasan, C. and Truszczynska, H. (1990), “Approximation to the range of a ratio-linear posterior quantity based on Fréchet derivative”, Technical Report, 289, Department of Statistics, University of Kentucky.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Tukey, J.W. (1960), “A survey of sampling from contaminated distributions”, In Contributions to Statistics and Probability, I. Olkin et al (Ed.), 448–485, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Wasserman, L. (1992), “Recent Methodological advances in robust Bayesian inference”, In Bayesian Statistics.4, J.M. Bernardo, et. al. (Eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Basu, S., Jammalamadaka, S.R., Liu, W. (1996). Local Posterior Robustness with Parametric Priors: Maximum and Average Sensitivity. In: Heidbreder, G.R. (eds) Maximum Entropy and Bayesian Methods. Fundamental Theories of Physics, vol 62. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8729-7_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8729-7_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4407-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-8729-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics