Spike and slab empirical Bayes sparse credible sets

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Publication:2278657



Abstract: In the sparse normal means model, coverage of adaptive Bayesian posterior credible sets associated to spike and slab prior distributions is considered. The key sparsity hyperparameter is calibrated via marginal maximum likelihood empirical Bayes. First, adaptive posterior contraction rates are derived with respect to dq--type--distances for qleq2. Next, under a type of so-called excessive-bias conditions, credible sets are constructed that have coverage of the true parameter at prescribed 1−alpha confidence level and at the same time are of optimal diameter. We also prove that the previous conditions cannot be significantly weakened from the minimax perspective.


Consider the sparse normal means model with observed data \(X=(X_1,\ldots,X_n)\) given by \(X_i=\theta_i+\varepsilon_i\), where \(\theta=(\theta_1,\ldots,\theta_n)\in\mathbb{R}^n\) is an unknown parameter vector and \(\varepsilon_1,\ldots,\varepsilon_n\) are IID Gaussian random variables. The true underlying parameter vector is assumed to have at most \(s\) non-zero coordinates, where \(s=s(n)\) is such that \(s/n=o(1)\) and \(s\rightarrow\infty\) as \(n\rightarrow\infty\). The authors consider a Bayesian setting with spike and slab prior distribution \(\Pi\) given by \[ \theta\sim\bigotimes_{i=1}^n[(1-\alpha)\delta_0 + \alpha G(\cdot)]\,, \] where \(\delta_0\) is a Dirac mass at 0, \(G\) is a probability measure with corresponding heavy-tailed density proportional to \((1+|x|)^{-1-\delta}\) for \(x\in\mathbb{R}\) and fixed \(\delta\in(0,2)\), and \(\alpha\) is chosen by maximizing the marginal likelihood. In this setting, adaptive convergence rates are established for distances of the form \(d_q(\theta,\theta^\prime)=\sum_{i=1}^n|\theta_i-\theta^\prime_i|^q\) for \(q\leq2\). Credible sets are constructed as balls centred at the posterior median estimator \(\hat{\theta}\) with radius proportional to \(\int d_q(\theta,\hat{\theta})d\Pi(\theta|X)\). Frequentist coverage results for these credible sets are investigated, which are shown in some cases, and under an excessive-bias condition, to have optimal diameter and coverage properties. Focusing particularly on the case \(q=2\), the authors show that this excessive-bias condition cannot be significantly weakened.



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