How the Maximal Evidence of P-Values Against Point Null Hypotheses Depends on Sample Size

Citation
Leonhard Held et Manuela Ott, How the Maximal Evidence of P-Values Against Point Null Hypotheses Depends on Sample Size, American statistician , 70(4), 2016, pp. 335-341
Journal title
ISSN journal
00031305
Volume
70
Issue
4
Year of publication
2016
Pages
335 - 341
Database
ACNP
SICI code
Abstract
Minimum Bayes factors are commonly used to transform two-sided p-values to lower bounds on the posterior probability of the null hypothesis. Several proposals exist in the literature, but none of them depends on the sample size. However, the evidence of a p-value against a point null hypothesis is known to depend on the sample size. In this article, we consider p-values in the linear model and propose new minimum Bayes factors that depend on sample size and converge to existing bounds as the sample size goes to infinity. It turns out that the maximal evidence of an exact two-sided p-value increases with decreasing sample size. The effect of adjusting minimum Bayes factors for sample size is shown in two applications.