Bayesian analysis for a stress‐strength system under noninformative priors

Abstract

AbstractNoninformative priors are used for estimating the reliability of a stress‐strength system. Several reference priors (cf. Berger and Bernardo 1989, 1992) are derived. A class of priors is found by matching the coverage probabilities of one‐sided Bayesian credible intervals with the corresponding frequentist coverage probabilities. It turns out that none of the reference priors is a matching prior. Sufficient conditions for propriety of posteriors under reference priors and matching priors are provided. A simple matching prior is compared with three reference priors when sample sizes are small. The study shows that the matching prior performs better than Jeffreys's prior and reference priors in meeting the target coverage probabilities.