A Bayesian method of sample size determination with practical applications
Sahu, S.K. and Smith, T.M.F. (2006) A Bayesian method of sample size determination with practical applications. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society), 169, (2), 235-253. (doi:10.1111/j.1467-985X.2006.00408.x).
Download
Full text not available from this repository.
Description/Abstract
The problem motivating this article is the determination of sample size in clinical trials under normal likelihoods and at the substantive testing stage of a financial audit where normality is not an appropriate assumption. A combination of analytical and simulation based techniques within the Bayesian framework is proposed. The framework accommodates two different prior distributions: one is the general purpose fitting prior distribution used in Bayesian analysis and the other is the expert subjective prior distribution, the sampling prior which is believed to generate the parameter values which in turn generate the data. We obtain many theoretical results and one key result is that typical non-informative prior distributions lead to very small sample sizes. On the other hand, a very informative prior distribution may either lead to a very small or a very large sample
size depending on the location of the centre of the prior distribution and the hypothesized value of the parameter. The methods developed here are quite general and can be applied to other sample size determination (SSD) problems. A number of numerical illustrations which bring out many other aspects of the optimum sample size are given.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| ISSNs: | 0964-1998 (print) |
| Related URLs: | |
| Keywords: | auditing, bayesian inference, book values, clinical trials, fitting prior, mixture distribution, rare errors, simulation based approach, sampling prior taints |
| Subjects: | Q Science > QA Mathematics H Social Sciences > HA Statistics |
| Divisions: | University Structure - Pre August 2011 > Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute University Structure - Pre August 2011 > School of Mathematics > Statistics |
| Item ID: | 30160 |
| Date Deposited: | 11 May 2006 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Jun 2011 16:33 |
| Contributors: | Sahu, S.K. (Author) Smith, T.M.F. (Author) |
| Date: | 2006 |
| Status: | Published |
| Contact Email Address: | S.K.Sahu@maths.soton.ac.uk |
| URI: | http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/30160 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
