Minimax Semiparametric Learning With Approximate Sparsity

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bradic, Jelena, Chernozhukov, Victor, Newey, Whitney K., Zhu, Yinchu
Format: Preprint
Published: 2019
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author Bradic, Jelena
Chernozhukov, Victor
Newey, Whitney K.
Zhu, Yinchu
author_facet Bradic, Jelena
Chernozhukov, Victor
Newey, Whitney K.
Zhu, Yinchu
contents Estimating linear, mean-square continuous functionals is a pivotal challenge in statistics. In high-dimensional contexts, this estimation is often performed under the assumption of exact model sparsity, meaning that only a small number of parameters are precisely non-zero. This excludes models where linear formulations only approximate the underlying data distribution, such as nonparametric regression methods that use basis expansion such as splines, kernel methods or polynomial regressions. Many recent methods for root-$n$ estimation have been proposed, but the implications of exact model sparsity remain largely unexplored. In particular, minimax optimality for models that are not exactly sparse has not yet been developed. This paper formalizes the concept of approximate sparsity through classical semi-parametric theory. We derive minimax rates under this formulation for a regression slope and an average derivative, finding these bounds to be substantially larger than those in low-dimensional, semi-parametric settings. We identify several new phenomena. We discover new regimes where rate double robustness does not hold, yet root-$n$ estimation is still possible. In these settings, we propose an estimator that achieves minimax optimal rates. Our findings further reveal distinct optimality boundaries for ordered versus unordered nonparametric regression estimation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_1912_12213
institution arXiv
publishDate 2019
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Minimax Semiparametric Learning With Approximate Sparsity
Bradic, Jelena
Chernozhukov, Victor
Newey, Whitney K.
Zhu, Yinchu
Statistics Theory
Econometrics
Machine Learning
Estimating linear, mean-square continuous functionals is a pivotal challenge in statistics. In high-dimensional contexts, this estimation is often performed under the assumption of exact model sparsity, meaning that only a small number of parameters are precisely non-zero. This excludes models where linear formulations only approximate the underlying data distribution, such as nonparametric regression methods that use basis expansion such as splines, kernel methods or polynomial regressions. Many recent methods for root-$n$ estimation have been proposed, but the implications of exact model sparsity remain largely unexplored. In particular, minimax optimality for models that are not exactly sparse has not yet been developed. This paper formalizes the concept of approximate sparsity through classical semi-parametric theory. We derive minimax rates under this formulation for a regression slope and an average derivative, finding these bounds to be substantially larger than those in low-dimensional, semi-parametric settings. We identify several new phenomena. We discover new regimes where rate double robustness does not hold, yet root-$n$ estimation is still possible. In these settings, we propose an estimator that achieves minimax optimal rates. Our findings further reveal distinct optimality boundaries for ordered versus unordered nonparametric regression estimation.
title Minimax Semiparametric Learning With Approximate Sparsity
topic Statistics Theory
Econometrics
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.12213