Bayesian hierarchical modeling

Part of a series on
Bayesian statistics
Posterior = Likelihood × Prior ÷ Evidence
Background
Bayesian inference Bayesian probability Bayes' theorem Bernstein–von Mises theorem Coherence Cox's theorem Cromwell's rule Likelihood principle Principle of indifference Principle of maximum entropy
Model building
Conjugate prior Linear regression Empirical Bayes Hierarchical model
Posterior approximation
Markov chain Monte Carlo Laplace's approximation Integrated nested Laplace approximations Variational inference Approximate Bayesian computation
Estimators
Bayesian estimator Credible interval Maximum a posteriori estimation
Evidence approximation
Evidence lower bound Nested sampling
Model evaluation
Bayes factor (Schwarz criterion) Model averaging Posterior predictive
Mathematics portal
v t e

Bayesian hierarchical modelling is a statistical model written in multiple levels (hierarchical form) that estimates the parameters of the posterior distribution using the Bayesian method.^[1] The sub-models combine to form the hierarchical model, and Bayes' theorem is used to integrate them with the observed data and account for all the uncertainty that is present. The result of this integration is it allows calculation of the posterior distribution of the prior, providing an updated probability estimate.

Frequentist statistics may yield conclusions seemingly incompatible with those offered by Bayesian statistics due to the Bayesian treatment of the parameters as random variables and its use of subjective information in establishing assumptions on these parameters.^[2] As the approaches answer different questions the formal results aren't technically contradictory but the two approaches disagree over which answer is relevant to particular applications. Bayesians argue that relevant information regarding decision-making and updating beliefs cannot be ignored and that hierarchical modeling has the potential to overrule classical methods in applications where respondents give multiple observational data. Moreover, the model has proven to be robust, with the posterior distribution less sensitive to the more flexible hierarchical priors.

Hierarchical modeling, as its name implies, retains nested data structure, and is used when information is available at several different levels of observational units. For example, in epidemiological modeling to describe infection trajectories for multiple countries, observational units are countries, and each country has its own time-based profile of daily infected cases.^[3] In decline curve analysis to describe oil or gas production decline curve for multiple wells, observational units are oil or gas wells in a reservoir region, and each well has each own time-based profile of oil or gas production rates (usually, barrels per month).^[4] Hierarchical modeling is used to devise computatation based strategies for multiparameter problems.^[5]