Inference for Deterministic Simulation Models: The Bayesian Melding Approach

Deterministic simulation models are used in many areas of science, engineering and policy-making. Typically, they are complex models that attempt to capture underlying mechanisms in considerable detail, and they have many user-specified inputs. The inputs are often specified by some form of trial-and-error approach in which plausible values are postulated, the corresponding outputs inspected, and the inputs modified until plausible outputs are obtained. Here we address the issue of more formal inference for such models. Raftery et al. (1995a) proposed the Bayesian synthesis approach in which the available information about both inputs and outputs was encoded in a probability distribution and inference was made by restricting this distribution to the submanifold specifid by the model. Wolpert (1995) showed that this is subject to the Borel paradox, according to which the results can depend on the parameterization of the model. We show that this dependence is due to the presence of a prior on the outputs. We propose a modified approach, called Bayesian melding, which takes full account of information and uncertainty about both inputs and outputs to the model, while avoiding the Borel paradox. This is done by recognizing the existence of two priors, one implicit and one explicit, on each input and output � these are combined via logarithmic pooling. Bayesian melding is then