Conditional Iterative Proportional Fitting for Gaussian Distributions

AbstractA Gaussian version of the iterative proportional fitting procedure (IFP-P) was applied by Speed and Kiiveri to solve the likelihood equations in graphical Gaussian models. The calculation of the maximum likelihood estimates can be seen as the problem to find a Gaussian distribution with prescribed Gaussian marginals. We extend the Gaussian version of the IPF-P so that additionally given conditionals of Gaussian type are taken into account. The convergence of both proposed procedures, called conditional iterative proportional fitting procedures (CIPF-P), is proved