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Reference.org
Empirical Bayes method
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<p>Empirical Bayes methods are procedures for <a href="/facts/Statistical_inference/sJLjubxm">statistical inference</a> in which the <a href="/facts/Prior_probability/JQKAD4o0">prior probability distribution</a> is estimated from the data. This approach stands in contrast to standard <a href="/facts/Bayesian_probability/Cvn7WWfG">Bayesian methods</a>, for which the prior distribution is fixed before any data are observed. Despite this difference in perspective, empirical Bayes may be viewed as an approximation to a fully Bayesian treatment of a <a href="/facts/Hierarchical_Bayes_model/Ry31vq6T">hierarchical model</a> wherein the parameters at the highest level of the hierarchy are set to their most likely values, instead of being integrated out. </p>