A Generalization of the Savage-Dickey Density Ratio for Testing Equality and Order Constrained Hypotheses

Abstract: The Savage-Dickey density ratio is a specific expression of the Bayes factor when testing a precise (equality constrained) hypothesis against an unrestricted alternative. The expression greatly simplifies the computation of the Bayes factor at the cost of assuming a specific form of the prior under the precise hypothesis as a function of the unrestricted prior. A generalization was proposed by Verdinelli and Wasserman (1995) such that the priors can be freely specified under both hypotheses while keeping the computational advantage. This paper presents an extension of this generalization when the hypothesis has equality as well as order constraints on the parameters of interest. The methodology is used for a constrained multivariate t test using the JZS Bayes factor and a constrained hypothesis test under the multinomial model.