English

Frequentist properties of Bayesian inequality tests

Statistics Theory 2024-07-04 v4 Econometrics Methodology Statistics Theory

Abstract

Bayesian and frequentist criteria fundamentally differ, but often posterior and sampling distributions agree asymptotically (e.g., Gaussian with same covariance). For the corresponding single-draw experiment, we characterize the frequentist size of a certain Bayesian hypothesis test of (possibly nonlinear) inequalities. If the null hypothesis is that the (possibly infinite-dimensional) parameter lies in a certain half-space, then the Bayesian test's size is α\alpha; if the null hypothesis is a subset of a half-space, then size is above α\alpha; and in other cases, size may be above, below, or equal to α\alpha. Rejection probabilities at certain points in the parameter space are also characterized. Two examples illustrate our results: translog cost function curvature and ordinal distribution relationships.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1607.00393,
  title  = {Frequentist properties of Bayesian inequality tests},
  author = {David M. Kaplan and Longhao Zhuo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1607.00393},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

This version is the accepted manuscript; published version info below

R2 v1 2026-06-22T14:41:10.304Z