Robust Estimation of Regression Models with Potentially Endogenous Outliers via a Modern Optimization Lens

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Gao, Zhan, Moon, Hyungsik Roger
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Gao, Zhan
Moon, Hyungsik Roger
author_facet Gao, Zhan
Moon, Hyungsik Roger
contents This paper addresses the robust estimation of linear regression models in the presence of potentially endogenous outliers. Through Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate that existing $L_1$-regularized estimation methods, including the Huber estimator and the least absolute deviation (LAD) estimator, exhibit significant bias when outliers are endogenous. Motivated by this finding, we investigate $L_0$-regularized estimation methods. We propose systematic heuristic algorithms, notably an iterative hard-thresholding algorithm and a local combinatorial search refinement, to solve the combinatorial optimization problem of the \(L_0\)-regularized estimation efficiently. Our Monte Carlo simulations yield two key results: (i) The local combinatorial search algorithm substantially improves solution quality compared to the initial projection-based hard-thresholding algorithm while offering greater computational efficiency than directly solving the mixed integer optimization problem. (ii) The $L_0$-regularized estimator demonstrates superior performance in terms of bias reduction, estimation accuracy, and out-of-sample prediction errors compared to $L_1$-regularized alternatives. We illustrate the practical value of our method through an empirical application to stock return forecasting.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_03930
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Robust Estimation of Regression Models with Potentially Endogenous Outliers via a Modern Optimization Lens
Gao, Zhan
Moon, Hyungsik Roger
Econometrics
This paper addresses the robust estimation of linear regression models in the presence of potentially endogenous outliers. Through Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate that existing $L_1$-regularized estimation methods, including the Huber estimator and the least absolute deviation (LAD) estimator, exhibit significant bias when outliers are endogenous. Motivated by this finding, we investigate $L_0$-regularized estimation methods. We propose systematic heuristic algorithms, notably an iterative hard-thresholding algorithm and a local combinatorial search refinement, to solve the combinatorial optimization problem of the \(L_0\)-regularized estimation efficiently. Our Monte Carlo simulations yield two key results: (i) The local combinatorial search algorithm substantially improves solution quality compared to the initial projection-based hard-thresholding algorithm while offering greater computational efficiency than directly solving the mixed integer optimization problem. (ii) The $L_0$-regularized estimator demonstrates superior performance in terms of bias reduction, estimation accuracy, and out-of-sample prediction errors compared to $L_1$-regularized alternatives. We illustrate the practical value of our method through an empirical application to stock return forecasting.
title Robust Estimation of Regression Models with Potentially Endogenous Outliers via a Modern Optimization Lens
topic Econometrics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.03930