TY - JOUR
T1 - Objective Bayesian approach to the Jeffreys-Lindley paradox
AU - Fowlie, Andrew
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - We consider the Jeffreys-Lindley paradox from an objective Bayesian perspective by attempting to find priors representing complete indifference to sample size in the problem. This means that we ensure that the prior for the unknown mean and the prior predictive for the t-statistic are independent of the sample size. If successful, this would lead to Bayesian model comparison that was independent of sample size and ameliorate the paradox. Unfortunately, it leads to an improper scale-invariant prior for the unknown mean. We show, however, that a truncated scale-invariant prior delays the dependence on sample size, which could be practically significant. Lastly, we shed light on the paradox by relating it to the fact that the scale-invariant prior is improper.
AB - We consider the Jeffreys-Lindley paradox from an objective Bayesian perspective by attempting to find priors representing complete indifference to sample size in the problem. This means that we ensure that the prior for the unknown mean and the prior predictive for the t-statistic are independent of the sample size. If successful, this would lead to Bayesian model comparison that was independent of sample size and ameliorate the paradox. Unfortunately, it leads to an improper scale-invariant prior for the unknown mean. We show, however, that a truncated scale-invariant prior delays the dependence on sample size, which could be practically significant. Lastly, we shed light on the paradox by relating it to the fact that the scale-invariant prior is improper.
KW - Bayes factors
KW - Lindley's paradox
KW - p-values
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85098665067&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/03610926.2020.1866206
DO - 10.1080/03610926.2020.1866206
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85098665067
SN - 0361-0926
VL - 51
SP - 6760
EP - 6765
JO - Communications in Statistics - Theory and Methods
JF - Communications in Statistics - Theory and Methods
IS - 19
ER -