Bayesian analysis of ranking data with the Extended Plackett–Luce model

Cristina Mollica () and Luca Tardella ()
Additional contact information
Cristina Mollica: Sapienza University of Rome
Luca Tardella: Sapienza University of Rome

Statistical Methods & Applications, 2021, vol. 30, issue 1, No 7, 175-194

Abstract: Abstract Multistage ranking models, including the popular Plackett–Luce distribution (PL), rely on the assumption that the ranking process is performed sequentially, by assigning the positions from the top to the bottom one (forward order). A recent contribution to the ranking literature relaxed this assumption with the addition of the discrete-valued reference order parameter, yielding the novel Extended Plackett–Luce model (EPL). Inference on the EPL and its generalization into a finite mixture framework was originally addressed from the frequentist perspective. In this work, we propose the Bayesian estimation of the EPL in order to address more directly and efficiently the inference on the additional discrete-valued parameter and the assessment of its estimation uncertainty, possibly uncovering potential idiosyncratic drivers in the formation of preferences. We overcome initial difficulties in employing a standard Gibbs sampling strategy to approximate the posterior distribution of the EPL by combining the data augmentation procedure and the conjugacy of the Gamma prior distribution with a tuned joint Metropolis–Hastings algorithm within Gibbs. The effectiveness and usefulness of the proposal is illustrated with applications to simulated and real datasets.

Keywords: Ranking data; Plackett–Luce model; Bayesian inference; Data augmentation; Gibbs sampling; Metropolis–Hastings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10260-020-00519-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:stmapp:v:30:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s10260-020-00519-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/10260/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10260-020-00519-5

Access Statistics for this article

Statistical Methods & Applications is currently edited by Tommaso Proietti

More articles in Statistical Methods & Applications from Springer, Società Italiana di Statistica
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().