Accounting Research as Bayesian Inference to the Best Explanation

Kallapur Sanjay ()
Additional contact information
Kallapur Sanjay: Indian School of Business, Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500111, India

Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, 2025, vol. 15, issue 1, 51-79

Abstract: The problems with p-values have been extensively discussed recently, but there is little work about the broader aspects of scientific inference of which p-values are but one part. This article explains how scientific inference can be characterized as Bayesian inference to the best explanation, which involves developing and assessing theories based on their fit with background facts and their ability to explain the observed data better than competing theories can. These factors translate into prior odds and Bayes factor respectively, which determine posterior odds under Bayesian inference. I provide examples from accounting research to illustrate how attention to these points makes for better research designs and stronger justification for inferences.

Keywords: scientific inference; qualitative Bayesian inference; research design; inference to the best explanation; design-based research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B41 M40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/ael-2021-0083 (text/html)
For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:aelcon:v:15:y:2025:i:1:p:51-79:n:1003

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/ael/html

DOI: 10.1515/ael-2021-0083

Access Statistics for this article

Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium is currently edited by Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Yuri Biondi and Shyam Sunder

More articles in Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().