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Sampling-Based Accuracy Testing of Posterior Estimators for General Inference

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arxiv 2302.03026 v2 pith:PMNY55UC submitted 2023-02-06 stat.ML astro-ph.IMcs.LGstat.ME

Sampling-Based Accuracy Testing of Posterior Estimators for General Inference

classification stat.ML astro-ph.IMcs.LGstat.ME
keywords posteriorinferencemethodaccuracygenerativemethodscoverageestimators
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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Parameter inference, i.e. inferring the posterior distribution of the parameters of a statistical model given some data, is a central problem to many scientific disciplines. Generative models can be used as an alternative to Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods for conducting posterior inference, both in likelihood-based and simulation-based problems. However, assessing the accuracy of posteriors encoded in generative models is not straightforward. In this paper, we introduce `Tests of Accuracy with Random Points' (TARP) coverage testing as a method to estimate coverage probabilities of generative posterior estimators. Our method differs from previously-existing coverage-based methods, which require posterior evaluations. We prove that our approach is necessary and sufficient to show that a posterior estimator is accurate. We demonstrate the method on a variety of synthetic examples, and show that TARP can be used to test the results of posterior inference analyses in high-dimensional spaces. We also show that our method can detect inaccurate inferences in cases where existing methods fail.

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