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Gamma-Poisson posterior mean for family size

Question

The number of children per family is modelled as Poisson with rate λ\lambda, and λ\lambda is given a Gamma prior with shape 3232 and rate 1010. A survey of 3434 families finds 100100 children in total. What is the posterior mean of λ\lambda?

Short answer

33. The Gamma prior is conjugate to the Poisson: the posterior is Gamma with shape 32+10032+100 and rate 10+3410+34, so its mean is 13244=3\tfrac{132}{44}=3.

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