Approximate Bayesian computation and applications

Recent developments allow Bayesian analysis also when the likelihood function is intractable, that means it is analytically unavailable or computationally prohibitive to evaluate. These methods are known as “approximate Bayesian computation” (ABC) or likelihood-free methods and are characterized by the fact that the approximation of the posterior distribution is obtained without explicitly evaluating the likelihood function. This kind of analysis is popular in genetic and financial settings. In this work, ABC and some possible applications will be presented.