Contextual Linear Optimization with Partial Feedback

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hu, Yichun, Kallus, Nathan, Mao, Xiaojie, Wu, Yanchen
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866914144703217664
author Hu, Yichun
Kallus, Nathan
Mao, Xiaojie
Wu, Yanchen
author_facet Hu, Yichun
Kallus, Nathan
Mao, Xiaojie
Wu, Yanchen
contents Contextual linear optimization (CLO) uses predictive contextual features to reduce uncertainty in random cost coefficients in the objective and thereby improve decision-making performance. A canonical example is the stochastic shortest path problem with random edge costs (e.g., travel time) and contextual features (e.g., lagged traffic, weather). While existing work on CLO assumes fully observed cost coefficient vectors, in many applications the decision maker observes only partial feedback corresponding to each chosen decision in the history. In this paper, we study both a bandit-feedback setting (e.g., only the overall travel time of each historical path is observed) and a semi-bandit-feedback setting (e.g., travel times of the individual segments on each chosen path are additionally observed). We propose a unified class of offline learning algorithms for CLO with different types of feedback, following a powerful induced empirical risk minimization (IERM) framework that integrates estimation and optimization. We provide a novel fast-rate regret bound for IERM that allows for misspecified model classes and flexible choices of estimation methods. To solve the partial-feedback IERM, we also tailor computationally tractable surrogate losses. A byproduct of our theory of independent interest is the fast-rate regret bound for IERM with full feedback and a misspecified policy class. We compare the performance of different methods numerically using stochastic shortest path examples on simulated and real data and provide practical insights from the empirical results.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_16564
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Contextual Linear Optimization with Partial Feedback
Hu, Yichun
Kallus, Nathan
Mao, Xiaojie
Wu, Yanchen
Machine Learning
Methodology
Contextual linear optimization (CLO) uses predictive contextual features to reduce uncertainty in random cost coefficients in the objective and thereby improve decision-making performance. A canonical example is the stochastic shortest path problem with random edge costs (e.g., travel time) and contextual features (e.g., lagged traffic, weather). While existing work on CLO assumes fully observed cost coefficient vectors, in many applications the decision maker observes only partial feedback corresponding to each chosen decision in the history. In this paper, we study both a bandit-feedback setting (e.g., only the overall travel time of each historical path is observed) and a semi-bandit-feedback setting (e.g., travel times of the individual segments on each chosen path are additionally observed). We propose a unified class of offline learning algorithms for CLO with different types of feedback, following a powerful induced empirical risk minimization (IERM) framework that integrates estimation and optimization. We provide a novel fast-rate regret bound for IERM that allows for misspecified model classes and flexible choices of estimation methods. To solve the partial-feedback IERM, we also tailor computationally tractable surrogate losses. A byproduct of our theory of independent interest is the fast-rate regret bound for IERM with full feedback and a misspecified policy class. We compare the performance of different methods numerically using stochastic shortest path examples on simulated and real data and provide practical insights from the empirical results.
title Contextual Linear Optimization with Partial Feedback
topic Machine Learning
Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.16564