IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/biomet/v97y2010i3p741-755.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Properties of nested sampling

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolas Chopin
  • Christian P. Robert

Abstract

Nested sampling is a simulation method for approximating marginal likelihoods. We establish that nested sampling has an approximation error that vanishes at the standard Monte Carlo rate and that this error is asymptotically Gaussian. It is shown that the asymptotic variance of the nested sampling approximation typically grows linearly with the dimension of the parameter. We discuss the applicability and efficiency of nested sampling in realistic problems, and compare it with two current methods for computing marginal likelihood. Finally, we propose an extension that avoids resorting to Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation to obtain the simulated points. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolas Chopin & Christian P. Robert, 2010. "Properties of nested sampling," Biometrika, Biometrika Trust, vol. 97(3), pages 741-755.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:biomet:v:97:y:2010:i:3:p:741-755
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/biomet/asq021
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sylvia. Richardson & Peter J. Green, 1997. "On Bayesian Analysis of Mixtures with an Unknown Number of Components (with discussion)," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 59(4), pages 731-792.
    2. Gareth O. Roberts & Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, 1999. "Convergence of Slice Sampler Markov Chains," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 61(3), pages 643-660.
    3. David J. Spiegelhalter & Nicola G. Best & Bradley P. Carlin & Angelika Van Der Linde, 2002. "Bayesian measures of model complexity and fit," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 64(4), pages 583-639, October.
    4. Francesco Bartolucci & Luisa Scaccia & Antonietta Mira, 2006. "Efficient Bayes factor estimation from the reversible jump output," Biometrika, Biometrika Trust, vol. 93(1), pages 41-52, March.
    5. Sylvia Fruhwirth-Schnatter, 2004. "Estimating marginal likelihoods for mixture and Markov switching models using bridge sampling techniques," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 7(1), pages 143-167, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gelman Andrew & Robert Christian P. & Rousseau Judith, 2013. "Inherent difficulties of non-Bayesian likelihood-based inference, as revealed by an examination of a recent book by Aitkin," Statistics & Risk Modeling, De Gruyter, vol. 30(2), pages 105-120, June.
    2. Tahir Ekin & Nicholas G. Polson & Refik Soyer, 2017. "Augmented nested sampling for stochastic programs with recourse and endogenous uncertainty," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(8), pages 613-627, December.
    3. Gael M. Martin & David T. Frazier & Christian P. Robert, 2020. "Computing Bayes: Bayesian Computation from 1763 to the 21st Century," Monash Econometrics and Business Statistics Working Papers 14/20, Monash University, Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics.
    4. Christian P. Robert & Gareth Roberts, 2021. "Rao–Blackwellisation in the Markov Chain Monte Carlo Era," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 89(2), pages 237-249, August.
    5. Christophe Andrieu & Arnaud Doucet & Roman Holenstein, 2010. "Particle Markov chain Monte Carlo methods," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 72(3), pages 269-342, June.
    6. Christian P. Robert, 2013. "Bayesian Computational Tools," Working Papers 2013-45, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    7. Nicolas Chopin & Alessandra Iacobucci & Jean-Michel Marin & Kerrie L. Mengersen & Christian P. Robert & Robin Ryder & Christian Schafer, 2010. "On Particle Learning," Working Papers 2010-22, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cai, Jing-Heng & Song, Xin-Yuan & Lam, Kwok-Hap & Ip, Edward Hak-Sing, 2011. "A mixture of generalized latent variable models for mixed mode and heterogeneous data," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(11), pages 2889-2907, November.
    2. Park, Byung-Jung & Zhang, Yunlong & Lord, Dominique, 2010. "Bayesian mixture modeling approach to account for heterogeneity in speed data," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 662-673, June.
    3. Tony S. Wirjanto & Adam W. Kolkiewicz & Zhongxian Men, 2013. "Stochastic Conditional Duration Models with Mixture Processes," Working Paper series 29_13, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    4. Xiaolin Luo & Pavel V. Shevchenko, 2012. "Bayesian Model Choice of Grouped t-Copula," Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 1097-1119, December.
    5. Yuan Fang & Dimitris Karlis & Sanjeena Subedi, 2022. "Infinite Mixtures of Multivariate Normal-Inverse Gaussian Distributions for Clustering of Skewed Data," Journal of Classification, Springer;The Classification Society, vol. 39(3), pages 510-552, November.
    6. Kazuhiko Kakamu, 2022. "Bayesian analysis of mixtures of lognormal distribution with an unknown number of components from grouped data," Papers 2210.05115, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2023.
    7. Zhongxian Men & Adam W. Kolkiewicz & Tony S. Wirjanto, 2019. "Threshold Stochastic Conditional Duration Model for Financial Transaction Data," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-21, May.
    8. Rufo, M.J. & Martín, J. & Pérez, C.J., 2010. "New approaches to compute Bayes factor in finite mixture models," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 54(12), pages 3324-3335, December.
    9. Carnicero, José Antonio & Wiper, Michael Peter, 2008. "A semi-parametric model for circular data based on mixtures of beta distributions," DES - Working Papers. Statistics and Econometrics. WS ws081305, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Estadística.
    10. S. Upadhyay & M. Peshwani, 2008. "Posterior analysis of lognormal regression models using the Gibbs sampler," Statistical Papers, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 59-85, March.
    11. Assaf, A. George & Tsionas, Mike & Oh, Haemoon, 2018. "The time has come: Toward Bayesian SEM estimation in tourism research," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 98-109.
    12. Buddhavarapu, Prasad & Scott, James G. & Prozzi, Jorge A., 2016. "Modeling unobserved heterogeneity using finite mixture random parameters for spatially correlated discrete count data," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 492-510.
    13. N. Friel & A. N. Pettitt, 2008. "Marginal likelihood estimation via power posteriors," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 70(3), pages 589-607, July.
    14. Dingjing Shi & Xin Tong, 2017. "The Impact of Prior Information on Bayesian Latent Basis Growth Model Estimation," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(3), pages 21582440177, August.
    15. Zhongxian Men & Adam W. Kolkiewicz & Tony S. Wirjanto, 2013. "Bayesian Inference of Asymmetric Stochastic Conditional Duration Models," Working Paper series 28_13, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    16. Shotwell Matthew S & Slate Elizabeth H, 2010. "Bayesian Modeling of Footrace Finishing Times," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 6(3), pages 1-21, July.
    17. Ang Shan & Fengkai Yang, 2021. "Bayesian Inference for Finite Mixture Regression Model Based on Non-Iterative Algorithm," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-13, March.
    18. Komárek, Arnost, 2009. "A new R package for Bayesian estimation of multivariate normal mixtures allowing for selection of the number of components and interval-censored data," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 53(12), pages 3932-3947, October.
    19. Lee, Jung Wun & Chung, Hwan & Jeon, Saebom, 2021. "Bayesian multivariate latent class profile analysis: Exploring the developmental progression of youth depression and substance use," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    20. David I. Ohlssen & Linda D. Sharples & David J. Spiegelhalter, 2007. "A hierarchical modelling framework for identifying unusual performance in health care providers," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 170(4), pages 865-890, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:biomet:v:97:y:2010:i:3:p:741-755. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/biomet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.