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On becoming a Bayesian: Early correspondences between J. Cornfield and L. J. Savage
Author(s) -
Greenhouse Joel B.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
statistics in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.996
H-Index - 183
eISSN - 1097-0258
pISSN - 0277-6715
DOI - 10.1002/sim.5604
Subject(s) - frequentist inference , bayesian probability , context (archaeology) , bayes' theorem , mainstream , econometrics , bayesian inference , statistics , philosophy , mathematics , geography , theology , archaeology
Jerome Cornfield was arguably the leading proponent for the use of Bayesian methods in biostatistics during the 1960s. Prior to 1963, however, Cornfield had no publications in the area of Bayesian statistics. At a time when frequentist methods were the dominant influence on statistical practice, Cornfield went against the mainstream and embraced Bayes. The goals of this paper are as follows: (i) to explore how and why this transformation came about and (ii) to provide some sense as to who Cornfield was and the context in which he worked. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.