Default prior_trunc value / possible bug in write_latex_prior_table

Estimation ML/Bayesian estimation
2
  1. Yes, the default is 1-e10 on each side of the distribution. I will correct the manual. That truncation leaves 0.9999999998 of the probability mass still intact. This type of truncation will therefore only move the prior bounds significantly in regions that are extremely unlikely. In most cases, that should therefore not make much of a difference. But it can do so if the very unlikely prior region gets assigned a large weight in the posterior so that you hit the bounds.
  2. To understand the behavior of write_latex_prior_table, you need to understand the design of the prior bounds. As documented in the manual, the bounds in the estimated_params and estimated_params_bounds do the following:

Specifies a lower bound for the parameter value in maximum likelihood estimation. In a Bayesian estimation context, sets a lower bound only effective while maximizing the posterior kernel. This lower bound does not modify the shape of the prior density, and is only aimed at helping the optimizer in identifying the posterior mode (no consequences for the MCMC)

Thus, the actual prior distributions used in Bayesian estimation are not affected and the computed table reflects this. That is different for options.prior_trunc which will be operative in all cases.