Quasi-Reliable Estimates of Effective Sample Size

Abstract: The efficiency of a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm might be measured by the cost of generating one independent sample, or equivalently, the total cost divided by the effective sample size, defined in terms of the integrated autocorrelation time. To ensure the reliability of such an estimate, it is suggested that there be an adequate sampling of state space--- to the extent that this can be determined from the available samples. A possible method for doing this is derived and evaluated.