A Comparison of Maximum Likelihood and Expected A Posteriori Estimation for Polychoric Correlation Using Monte Carlo Simulation

Abstract

This study aims to compare the maximum likelihood (ML) and expected a posterior (EAP) estimation for polychoric correlation (PCC) under diverse conditions, especially when considering a sample size. As the ML is the classical solution to estimate PCC, the EAP is a new method based on Bayes’ theorem. Different types of prior distributions are also adapted to investigate the sensitivity of prior distribution onto the PCC estimate for the EAP case. The Monte Carlo simulation is used for this comparison by a specialized program code in MATLAB.