English

Bayes Risk for Goodness of Fit Tests

Statistics Theory 2026-02-18 v1 Statistics Theory

Abstract

We develop a unified framework for goodness-of-fit (GOF) testing through the lens of Bayes risk. Classical GOF procedures are commonly calibrated either at fixed significance level (CLT scale) or through exponential error exponents (LDP scale). We establish that Bayes-risk optimal calibration operates on the moderate-deviation (MDP) scale, producing canonical logn\sqrt{\log n} inflation of rejection thresholds and polynomially decaying Type I error. Our main contributions are: (i) we formalise the Rubin--Sethuraman program for KS-type statistics as a risk-calibration theorem with explicit regularity conditions on priors and empirical-process functionals; (ii) we develop the precise connection between Bayes-risk expansions and Sanov information asymptotics, showing how logn\log n-order truncations arise naturally when risk, rather than pure exponents, is the evaluation criterion; (iii) we provide detailed applications to location testing under Laplace families, shape testing via Bayes factors, and connections to Fisher information geometry. The organizing principle throughout is that sample size enters Bayes-optimal GOF cutoffs through the MDP scale, unifying KS-based and Sanov-based perspectives under a single risk criterion.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.15297,
  title  = {Bayes Risk for Goodness of Fit Tests},
  author = {Nicholas G. Polson and Vadim Sokolov and Daniel Zantedeschi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.15297},
  year   = {2026}
}