Minimizing Weighted Mean of Inefficiency for Robust Designs

This paper addresses issues of robustness in Bayesian optimal design. We may have difficulty applying Bayesian optimal design principles because of the uncertainty of prior distribution. When there are several plausible prior distributions and the efficiency of a design depends on the unknown prior distribution, robustness with respect to misspecification of prior distribution is required. We suggest a new optimal design criterion which has relatively high efficiencies across the class of plausible prior distributions. The criterion is applied to the problem of estimating the turning point of a quadratic regression, and both analytic and numerical results are shown to demonstrate its robustness.