A decision-theoretical alternative to testing many hypotheses

N.T. Longford

Abstract

Testing a large number of hypotheses is a key problem in the analysis of microarray experiments and in other studies in which many elementary experiments are conducted, and the exceptions among them, for which a particular hypothesis does not hold, have to be identified. A class of approaches to this problem is based on controlling the false discovery rate, even though failure to discover should also be considered. We develop a decision-theoretical approach in which errors (misclassifications) of the two kinds are associated with uneven losses, and the total expected loss in the collection of the classifications (decisions made or options selected) is minimised.

Biostatistics 15, 164-179, 2014.

January 2014.