Relaxing the local independence assumption for quantitative learning in acyclic directed graphical models through hierarchical partition models

The simplest method proposed by Spiegelhalter and Lauritzen (1990) to perform quantitative learning in ADG presents a potential weakness: the local independence assumption. We propose to alleviate this problem through the use of Hierarchical Partition Models. Our approach is compared with the previous one from an interpretative and predictive point of view.