New Estimators of the Bayes Factor for Models with High-Dimensional Parameter and/or Latent Variable Spaces

Formal Bayesian comparison of two competing models, based on the posterior odds ratio, amounts to estimation of the Bayes factor, which is equal to the ratio of respective two marginal data density values. In models with a large number of parameters and/or latent variables, they are expressed by high-dimensional integrals, which are often computationally infeasible. Therefore, other methods of evaluation of the Bayes factor are needed. In this paper, a new method of estimation of the Bayes factor is proposed. Simulation examples confirm good performance of the proposed estimators. Finally, these new estimators are used to formally compare different hybrid Multivariate Stochastic Volatility-Multivariate Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (MSV-MGARCH) models which have a large number of latent variables. The empirical results show, among other things, that the validity of reduction of the hybrid MSV-MGARCH model to the MGARCH specification depends on the analyzed data set as well as on prior assumptions about model parameters.

Automated summary

This paper introduces a new method for estimating the Bayes factor, with simulation examples confirming its good performance. Additionally, it is found that the validity of reducing the hybrid MSV-MGARCH model to the MGARCH specification depends on the analyzed dataset and prior assumptions about model parameters.