Bayesian Preference Learning with the Mallows Rank Model
Description
An implementation of the Bayesian version of the Mallows rank model
(Vitelli et al., Journal of Machine Learning Research, 2018 ;
Crispino et al., Annals of Applied Statistics, 2019 ;
Sorensen et al., R Journal, 2020 ;
Stein, PhD Thesis, 2023 ). Both Metropolis-Hastings
and sequential Monte Carlo algorithms for estimating the models are available. Cayley, footrule,
Hamming, Kendall, Spearman, and Ulam distances are supported in the models. The rank data to be
analyzed can be in the form of complete rankings, top-k rankings, partially missing rankings, as well
as consistent and inconsistent pairwise preferences. Several functions for plotting and studying the
posterior distributions of parameters are provided. The package also provides functions for estimating
the partition function (normalizing constant) of the Mallows rank model, both with the importance
sampling algorithm of Vitelli et al. and asymptotic approximation with the IPFP algorithm
(Mukherjee, Annals of Statistics, 2016 ).