Paper 3, Section II, 27J\mathbf{2 7 J}

Principles of Statistics
Part II, 2010

Define the normal and extensive form solutions of a Bayesian statistical decision problem involving parameter Θ\Theta, random variable XX, and loss function L(θ,a)L(\theta, a). How are they related? Let R0=R0(Π)R_{0}=R_{0}(\Pi) be the Bayes loss of the optimal act when ΘΠ\Theta \sim \Pi and no data can be observed. Express the Bayes risk R1R_{1} of the optimal statistical decision rule in terms of R0R_{0} and the joint distribution of (Θ,X)(\Theta, X).

The real parameter Θ\Theta has distribution Π\Pi, having probability density function π()\pi(\cdot). Consider the problem of specifying a set SRS \subseteq \mathbb{R} such that the loss when Θ=θ\Theta=\theta is L(θ,S)=cS1S(θ)L(\theta, S)=c|S|-\mathbf{1}_{S}(\theta), where 1S\mathbf{1}_{S} is the indicator function of SS, where c>0c>0, and where S=Sdx|S|=\int_{S} d x. Show that the "highest density" region S:={θ:π(θ)c}S^{*}:=\{\theta: \pi(\theta) \geqslant c\} supplies a Bayes act for this decision problem, and explain why R0(Π)0R_{0}(\Pi) \leqslant 0.

For the case ΘN(μ,σ2)\Theta \sim \mathcal{N}\left(\mu, \sigma^{2}\right), find an expression for R0R_{0} in terms of the standard normal distribution function Φ\Phi.

Suppose now that c=0.5c=0.5, that ΘN(0,1)\Theta \sim \mathcal{N}(0,1) and that XΘN(Θ,1/9)X \mid \Theta \sim \mathcal{N}(\Theta, 1 / 9). Show that R1<R0R_{1}<R_{0}.