Abstract
Incorporating information about the target distribution in proposal mechanisms generally produces efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms (or at least, algorithms that are more efficient than uninformed counterparts). For instance, it has proved successful to incorporate gradient information in fixed-dimensional algorithms, as seen with algorithms such as Hamiltonian Monte Carlo. In trans-dimensional algorithms, Green (2003) recommended to sample the parameter proposals during model switches from normal distributions with informative means and covariance matrices. These proposal distributions can be viewed as asymptotic approximations to the parameter distributions, where the limit is with regard to the sample size. Models are typically proposed using uninformed uniform distributions. In this paper, we build on the approach of Zanella (2020) for discrete spaces to incorporate information about neighbouring models. We rely on approximations to posterior model probabilities that are asymptotically exact. We prove that, in some scenarios, the samplers combining this approach with that of Green (2003) behave like ideal ones that use the exact model probabilities and sample from the correct parameter distributions, in the large-sample regime. We show that the implementation of the proposed samplers is straightforward in some cases. The methodology is applied to a real-data example. The code is available online.
Funding Statement
The author acknowledges support from NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council) of Canada and FRQNT (Le Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies).
Version Information
The author corrected the first two sentences of the abstract. The abstract was corrected on 27 August 2021.
Citation
Philippe Gagnon. "Informed reversible jump algorithms." Electron. J. Statist. 15 (2) 3951 - 3995, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1214/21-EJS1877
Information