Bayesian methods for the analysis of inequality constrained contingency tables

A Bayesian methodology for the analysis of inequality constrained models for contingency tables is presented. The problem of interest lies in obtaining the estimates of functions of cell probabilities subject to inequality constraints, testing hypotheses and selection of the best model. Constraints on conditional cell probabilities and on local, global, continuation and cumulative odds ratios are discussed. A Gibbs sampler to obtain a discrete representation of the posterior distribution of the inequality constrained parameters is used. Using this discrete representation, the credibility regions of functions of cell probabilities can be constructed. Posterior model probabilities are used for model selection and hypotheses are tested using posterior predictive checks. The Bayesian methodology proposed is illustrated in two examples.