English

Bayes, E-values and Testing

Statistics Theory 2026-03-11 v6 Statistics Theory

Abstract

E-values and E-processes (nonnegative supermartingales) provide anytime-valid evidence for sequential testing via Ville's inequality, yet their connection to Bayesian reasoning, representational structure, and computational feasibility are often conflated in the literature. We develop a typed framework that separates sequential evidence into three layers: (i) representation (Radon-Nikodym / likelihood-ratio geometry), (ii) validity (supermartingale certificates under optional stopping), and (iii) decision (boundary design and efficiency calibration). Our main results are: (a) under log-loss and Bayes-risk minimization, the likelihood ratio is the unique evidence representation within the coherent predictive subclass; (b) the likelihood-ratio stopping time satisfies E_1[tau_b] = (log b)/mu + O(sqrt(log b)) under Cramer conditions, while validity-only thresholds admit no such growth-rate guarantee; and (c) regret-optimal codes (e.g., NML/MDL) do not in general yield valid E-processes, while prequential codes do. Monte Carlo experiments confirm the theoretical predictions. The framework applies to online model validation, adaptive experimentation, conformal prediction, and sequential changepoint detection.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.04146,
  title  = {Bayes, E-values and Testing},
  author = {Nicholas G. Polson and Vadim Sokolov and Daniel Zantedeschi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.04146},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Revised submission: fixed typos, added clarifications, and compressed the exposition

R2 v1 2026-07-01T09:35:16.581Z