Scalable Bayesian computation for crossed and nested hierarchical models
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: We develop sampling algorithms to fit Bayesian hierarchical models, the computational complexity of which scales linearly with the number of observations and the number of parameters in the model. We focus on crossed random effect and nested multilevel models, which are used ubiquitously in applied sciences. The posterior dependence in both classes is sparse: in crossed random effects models it resembles a random graph, whereas in nested multilevel models it is tree-structured. For each class we identify a framework for scalable computation, building on previous work. Methods for crossed models are based on extensions of appropriately designed collapsed Gibbs samplers, where we introduce the idea of local centering; while methods for nested models are based on sparse linear algebra (SLA) and data augmentation. We provide a theoretical analysis of the proposed algorithms in some simplified settings, including a comparison with previously proposed methodologies and an average-case analysis based on random graph theory. Numerical experiments, including two challenging real data analyses on predicting electoral results and real estate prices, compare with off-the-shelf Hamiltonian Monte Carlo, displaying drastic improvement in performance. The code for replicating the experiments in the article and for implementing our methods can be found at https://github.com/timsf/crossed-effects and https://github.com/timsf/nested-effects.
Source: Electronic Journal of Statistics
DOI: 10.1214/23-ejs2172
Institution: Bocconi University
Language: English
Subfield: Statistics and Probability
Field: Mathematics
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $675
OpenAlex ID: W4389143239