A Unified Post-Processing Framework for Group Fairness in Classification

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Xian, Ruicheng, Zhao, Han
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Xian, Ruicheng
Zhao, Han
author_facet Xian, Ruicheng
Zhao, Han
contents We present a post-processing algorithm for fair classification that covers group fairness criteria including statistical parity, equal opportunity, and equalized odds under a single framework, and is applicable to multiclass problems in both attribute-aware and attribute-blind settings. Our algorithm, called "LinearPost", achieves fairness post-hoc by linearly transforming the predictions of the (unfair) base predictor with a "fairness risk" according to a weighted combination of the (predicted) group memberships. It yields the Bayes optimal fair classifier if the base predictors being post-processed are Bayes optimal, otherwise, the resulting classifier may not be optimal, but fairness is guaranteed as long as the group membership predictor is multicalibrated. The parameters of the post-processing can be efficiently computed and estimated from solving an empirical linear program. Empirical evaluations demonstrate the advantage of our algorithm in the high fairness regime compared to existing post-processing and in-processing fair classification algorithms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_04025
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Unified Post-Processing Framework for Group Fairness in Classification
Xian, Ruicheng
Zhao, Han
Machine Learning
Computers and Society
We present a post-processing algorithm for fair classification that covers group fairness criteria including statistical parity, equal opportunity, and equalized odds under a single framework, and is applicable to multiclass problems in both attribute-aware and attribute-blind settings. Our algorithm, called "LinearPost", achieves fairness post-hoc by linearly transforming the predictions of the (unfair) base predictor with a "fairness risk" according to a weighted combination of the (predicted) group memberships. It yields the Bayes optimal fair classifier if the base predictors being post-processed are Bayes optimal, otherwise, the resulting classifier may not be optimal, but fairness is guaranteed as long as the group membership predictor is multicalibrated. The parameters of the post-processing can be efficiently computed and estimated from solving an empirical linear program. Empirical evaluations demonstrate the advantage of our algorithm in the high fairness regime compared to existing post-processing and in-processing fair classification algorithms.
title A Unified Post-Processing Framework for Group Fairness in Classification
topic Machine Learning
Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.04025