Principal Applications of Bayesian Methods in Actuarial Science: A Perspective

Bayesian ideas were introduced into actuarial science in the late 1960s in the form of empirical credibility methods for premium setting. The advance of the Bayesian methodology was slow due to its subjective nature and to the computational difficulties associated with the full Bayesian analysis. This paper offers a brief survey of Bayesian solutions to some actuarial problems and discusses the current state of research.