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Tim
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Approximate Metropolis algorithm - does it make sense?

Some time ago Xi'an asked What is the equivalent for cdfs of MCMC for pdfs? The naive answer would be to use "approximate" Metropolis algorithm in form

Given $X^{(t)} = x^{(t)}$

  1. generate $Y \sim q(y|x^{(t)})$
  2. take $$ X^{(t+1)} = \begin{cases} Y & \text{ with probability } & \min\left( \frac{F(Y+\varepsilon) - F(Y-\varepsilon)}{F(x^{(t)}+\varepsilon) - F(x^{(t)}-\varepsilon)} , 1 \right)\\ x^{(t)} & \text{ otherwise.} \end{cases} $$

where $F$ is a target CDF and $\varepsilon$ is some small constant. This enables us to use Metropolis algorithm with CDF's.

The question is: is there any reason why this may actually be a bad idea?

Tim
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