Max-and-Smooth: A Two-Step Approach for Approximate Bayesian Inference in Latent Gaussian Models
Type
ArticleKAUST Department
Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Science and Engineering (CEMSE) DivisionStatistics Program
Date
2020-06-19Preprint Posting Date
2019-07-27Online Publication Date
2020-06-19Print Publication Date
2021-04-01Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/656236
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With modern high-dimensional data, complex statistical models are necessary, requiring computationally feasible inference schemes. We introduce Max-and-Smooth, an approximate Bayesian inference scheme for a flexible class of latent Gaussian models (LGMs) where one or more of the likelihood parameters are modeled by latent additive Gaussian processes. Our proposed inference scheme is a two-step approach. In the first step (Max), the likelihood function is approximated by a Gaussian density with mean and covariance equal to either (a) the maximum likelihood estimate and the inverse observed information, respectively, or (b) the mean and covariance of the normalized likelihood function. In the second step (Smooth), the latent parameters and hyperparameters are inferred and smoothed with the approximated likelihood function. The proposed method ensures that the uncertainty from the first step is correctly propagated to the second step. Because the prior density for the latent parameters is assumed to be Gaussian and the approximated likelihood function is Gaussian, the approximate posterior density of the latent parameters (conditional on the hyperparameters) is also Gaussian, thus facilitating efficient posterior inference in high dimensions. Furthermore, the approximate marginal posterior distribution of the hyperparameters is tractable, and as a result, the hyperparameters can be sampled independently of the latent parameters. We show that the computational cost of Max-and-Smooth is close to being insensitive to the number of independent data replicates, and that it scales well with increased dimension of the latent parameter vector provided that its Gaussian prior density is specified with a sparse precision matrix. In the case of a large number of independent data replicates, sparse precision matrices, and high-dimensional latent vectors, the speedup is substantial in comparison to an MCMC scheme that infers the posterior density from the exact likelihood function. The accuracy of the Gaussian approximation to the likelihood function increases with the number of data replicates per latent model parameter. The proposed inference scheme is demonstrated on one spatially referenced real dataset and on simulated data mimicking spatial, temporal, and spatio-temporal inference problems. Our results show that Max-and-Smooth is accurate and fast.Citation
Hrafnkelsson, B., Siegert, S., Huser, R., Bakka, H., & Jóhannesson, Á. V. (2021). Max-and-Smooth: A Two-Step Approach for Approximate Bayesian Inference in Latent Gaussian Models. Bayesian Analysis, 16(2). doi:10.1214/20-ba1219Sponsors
We would like to acknowledge support from the EPSRC ReCoVer network, UK National Environment Research Council (NERC) and the University of Iceland Research Fund. We thank the Associate Editor and the reviewer for their constructive suggestions.Publisher
Institute of Mathematical StatisticsJournal
BAYESIAN ANALYSISarXiv
1907.11969Additional Links
https://projecteuclid.org/journals/bayesian-analysis/volume-16/issue-2/Max-and-Smooth--A-Two-Step-Approach-for-Approximate/10.1214/20-BA1219.fullae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1214/20-BA1219
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