Bayesian Computation with Intractable Likelihoods

Matthew T. Moores, Anthony N. Pettitt, Kerrie Mengersen

Published 2020-04-08Version 1

This article surveys computational methods for posterior inference with intractable likelihoods, that is where the likelihood function is unavailable in closed form, or where evaluation of the likelihood is infeasible. We review recent developments in pseudo-marginal methods, approximate Bayesian computation (ABC), the exchange algorithm, thermodynamic integration, and composite likelihood, paying particular attention to advancements in scalability for large datasets. We also mention R and MATLAB source code for implementations of these algorithms, where they are available.