With a Poisson-gamma conjugacy with unequal exposures model, and , so the Bühlmann–Straub credibility factor is . The credibility estimate simplifies to , exactly the posterior mean and hence the Bayes estimator under squared error loss. The agreement is exact because that posterior mean is already affine in the exposure-weighted data.
Use the standard interpretation that the counts are conditionally independent given the parameters, with mutually independent stated priors. Let , , and define
Under the reference constraints, the Poisson distribution likelihood, up to data-only factors, is
Multiplying by the shape-rate gamma prior gives the Poisson-gamma conjugacy with unequal exposures
Here is a rate, matching the probability density function convention on the PDF's first page. The factor represents the number of replicates per cell, not the total count.
Use the shape-rate convention for the gamma distribution , with prior distribution probability density function proportional to . The observations are independent conditional on the common parameter . Unconditionally a common nondegenerate prior distribution induces covariance between distinct observations, so the Bayesian inference model requires conditional independence.
For unit-exposure counts, the likelihood is proportional to . Multiplying by the prior distribution gives
The future count has conditional expectation , so posterior distribution averaging gives
This is an exact Bayesian credibility estimate, with credibility factor and collective mean .
For the insurance exposure and claims inflation calculation put , assuming , and positive policy counts . Let be the total claim count in year . Conditional independence of the policy counts gives , and the observed average amount satisfies
For possible observations, the recovered are nonnegative integers. If they are not, the data have zero likelihood under the model and no conditional posterior distribution is defined for those impossible values.
Write and . Since and determine each other, conditioning on the observed average amounts is equivalent to conditioning on these counts. The independent yearly count likelihood is
The Poisson-gamma conjugacy with unequal exposures therefore gives
For the future year, ; the number of future policies cancels because is a per-policy average. Hence
with
The collective mean is the prior distribution expected claim amount per policy in the future year's monetary units. The experience mean first inflates each past per-policy amount to that same future year and then averages with policy-exposure weights. Equivalently, it estimates annual claim frequency by total observed claims divided by total past insurance exposure and converts that frequency to the future claim cost. This is inflation-adjusted Poisson-gamma credibility.
For fixed prior distribution parameters, increases strictly with total past insurance exposure: , and as . The prior distribution weight decreases to zero; acts as equivalent prior distribution insurance exposure. With no past insurance exposure the appropriate weight is zero and the prediction is , without defining an empirical experience mean.
Multiplying the Poisson distribution likelihood by the Jeffreys prior gives the posterior density kernel
Thus, in shape-rate convention,
It is a proper posterior distribution even when , provided . The posterior mean and posterior variance are and . This is Poisson-gamma conjugacy with unequal exposures, with the zero-rate prior interpreted as an improper kernel.
Conditional on , summing the individual independent Poisson counts gives . The between-year conditional independence makes the likelihood function
Multiplying by the gamma distribution prior density, proportional to , gives the Poisson-gamma conjugacy with unequal exposures:
For an action , the posterior squared-error loss decomposes as
Hence the Bayes estimator under squared error loss is the posterior mean, giving
Future counts are independent of the observed years conditional on , so the law of total expectation then gives the posterior predictive expected count
The Bayesian and credibility estimates coincide exactly. This exact Bühlmann–Straub credibility for Poisson-gamma counts occurs because the posterior mean is already affine in the exposure-weighted experience, and therefore belongs to the class over which the credibility estimate minimizes mean squared error.