Bayesian Variable Selection Utilizing Posterior Probability Credible Intervals
Du, M.; Andersen, S. L.; Perls, T. T.; Sebastiani, P.
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In recent years, there has been growing interest in the problem of model selection in the Bayesian framework. Current approaches include methods based on computing model probabilities such as Stochastic Search Variable Selection (SSVS) and Bayesian LASSO and methods based on model choice criteria, such as the Deviance Information Criterion (DIC). Methods in the first group compute the posterior probabilities of models or model parameters often using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique, and select a subset of the variables based on a prespecified threshold on the posterior probability. However, these methods rely heavily on the prior choices of parameters and the results can be highly sensitive when priors are changed. DIC is a Bayesian generalization of the Akaikes Information Criterion (AIC) that penalizes for large number of parameters, it has the advantage that can be used for selection of mixed effect models but tends to prefer overparameterized models. We propose a novel variable selection algorithm that utilizes the parameters credible intervals to select the variables to be kept in the model. We show in a simulation study and a real-world example that this algorithm on average performs better than DIC and produces more parsimonious models.
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