Bayesian pooling for contingency tables from small areas

This paper studies Bayesian pooling for analysis of categorical data from small areas. Many surveys consist of categorical data collected on a contingency table in each area. Statistical inference for small areas requires considerable care because the subpopulation sample sizes are usually very small. Typically we use the hierarchical Bayesian model for pooling subpopulation data. However, the customary hierarchical Bayesian models may specify more exchangeability than warranted. We, therefore, investigate the effects of pooling in hierarchical Bayesian modeling for the contingency table from small areas. In specific, this paper focuses on the methods of direct or indirect pooling of categorical data collected on a contingency table in each area through Dirichlet priors. We compare the pooling effects of hierarchical Bayesian models by fitting the simulated data. The analysis is carried out using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods.