A theoretical comparison of the data augmentation, marginal augmentation and PX-DA algorithms

TL;DR

This paper provides a theoretical comparison of data augmentation, marginal augmentation, and PX-DA algorithms, demonstrating conditions under which these methods outperform each other in MCMC convergence and efficiency.

Contribution

It offers a rigorous theoretical analysis comparing the performance of DA, PX-DA, and marginal augmentation algorithms, especially in group-structured models.

Findings

PX-DA with Haar measure is at least as good as any PX-DA with a proper prior.

Under certain conditions, algorithms driven by R are at least as good as those driven by p.

Theoretical bounds on convergence and performance improvements are established.

Abstract

The data augmentation (DA) algorithm is a widely used Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm that is based on a Markov transition density of the form $p(x|x')=\int_{\mathsf{Y}}f_{X|Y}(x|y)f_{Y|X}(y|x') dy$, where $f_{X|Y}$ and $f_{Y|X}$ are conditional densities. The PX-DA and marginal augmentation algorithms of Liu and Wu [J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 94 (1999) 1264--1274] and Meng and van Dyk [Biometrika 86 (1999) 301--320] are alternatives to DA that often converge much faster and are only slightly more computationally demanding. The transition densities of these alternative algorithms can be written in the form $p_R(x|x')=\int_{\mathsf{Y}}\int _{\mathsf{Y}}f_{X|Y}(x|y')R(y,dy')f_{Y|X}(y|x') dy$, where $R$ is a Markov transition function on $\mathsf{Y}$. We prove that when $R$ satisfies certain conditions, the MCMC algorithm driven by $p_R$ is at least as good as that driven by $p$ in terms of performance in the central limit theorem and in the operator norm sense. These results are brought to bear on a theoretical comparison of the DA, PX-DA and marginal augmentation algorithms. Our focus is on situations where the group structure exploited by Liu and Wu is available. We show that the PX-DA algorithm based on Haar measure is at least as good as any PX-DA algorithm constructed using a proper prior on the group.