REPARAMETRIZATION AND ACCURACY OF LAPLACE APPROXIMATIONS FOR POSTERIOR MOMENTS

Jorge Alberto ACHCAR[1]

§    ABSTRACT: An useful formula is developed to be used as a criterion to check the error term of Laplace approximations for posterior moments of interest, We also present an useful reparametrization to get very accurate Laplace approximations for posterior moments, specially for small sample sizes. The method is illustrated with some examples.

§    KEYWORDS: Accuracy of Laplace approximations; posterior moments; reparametrization.



[1] Departamento de Ciências da Computação e Estatística – Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas de São Carlos – USP – 13560-970 – São Carlos – SP – Brasil