Preprint #96-17



Multiway Dependence in Exponential Family Conditional Distributions

by

Jaehyung Lee, Mark S. Kaiser and Noel Cressie


Abstract

Conditionally specified statistical models are frequently constructed from conditional one-parameter exponential family distributions. One way to formulate such a model is to specify the dependence structure among random variables through the use of a Markov random field. When this is done, a common assumption is that dependence is expressed only through pairs of random variables, the `pairwise-only dependence' assumption. Using a Markov random field structure and the pairwise-only dependence assumption, Besag (1974) formulated exponential family `auto-models', and showed the form that conditional one-parameter exponential family densities must have in such models. We extend those results under relaxation of the pairwise-only dependence assumption, and give a necessary form for conditional one-parameter exponential family densities under more general conditions of multiway dependence.


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