Bayesian methods

Laplace Approximation

The Laplace approximation is a classical analytic technique that replaces an intractable posterior distribution with a multivariate Gaussian centred at the posterior mode, using the curvature of the log-posterior at that mode to set the covariance. Formalised for Bayesian statistics by Tierney and Kadane (1986) in their landmark Journal of the American Statistical Association paper, it provides a fast, deterministic alternative to Markov chain Monte Carlo and forms the mathematical core of Integrated Nested Laplace Approximations (INLA).

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Sources

  1. Tierney, L. & Kadane, J. B. (1986). Accurate approximations for posterior moments and marginal densities. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 81(393), 82–86. DOI: 10.1080/01621459.1986.10478240
  2. MacKay, D. J. C. (2003). Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0521642989
  3. Rue, H., Martino, S. & Chopin, N. (2009). Approximate Bayesian inference for latent Gaussian models by using integrated nested Laplace approximations. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B, 71(2), 319–392. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9868.2008.00700.x

Related methods

Referenced by

ScholarGateLaplace Approximation (Laplace Approximation to the Posterior). Retrieved 2026-06-04 from https://scholargate.app/tr/bayesian/laplace-approximation