Bayesian nonparametric dynamic hazard rates in evolutionary life tables

In the study of life tables the random variable of interest is usually assumed discrete since mortality rates are studied for integer ages. In dynamic life tables a time domain is included to account for the evolution effect of the hazard rates in time. In this article we follow a survival analysis approach and use a nonparametric description of the hazard rates. We construct a discrete time stochastic processes that reflects dependence across age as well as in time. This process is used as a bayesian nonparametric prior distribution for the hazard rates for the study of evolutionary life tables. Prior properties of the process are studied and posterior distributions are derived. We present a simulation study, with the inclusion of right censored observations, as well as a real data analysis to show the performance of our model.