Conditional nonparametric variable screening by neural factor regression

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Fan, Jianqing, Wang, Weining, Zhao, Yue
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Fan, Jianqing
Wang, Weining
Zhao, Yue
author_facet Fan, Jianqing
Wang, Weining
Zhao, Yue
contents High-dimensional covariates often admit linear factor structure. To effectively screen correlated covariates in high-dimension, we propose a conditional variable screening test based on non-parametric regression using neural networks due to their representation power. We ask the question whether individual covariates have additional contributions given the latent factors or more generally a set of variables. Our test statistics are based on the estimated partial derivative of the regression function of the candidate variable for screening and a observable proxy for the latent factors. Hence, our test reveals how much predictors contribute additionally to the non-parametric regression after accounting for the latent factors. Our derivative estimator is the convolution of a deep neural network regression estimator and a smoothing kernel. We demonstrate that when the neural network size diverges with the sample size, unlike estimating the regression function itself, it is necessary to smooth the partial derivative of the neural network estimator to recover the desired convergence rate for the derivative. Moreover, our screening test achieves asymptotic normality under the null after finely centering our test statistics that makes the biases negligible, as well as consistency for local alternatives under mild conditions. We demonstrate the performance of our test in a simulation study and two real world applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_10825
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Conditional nonparametric variable screening by neural factor regression
Fan, Jianqing
Wang, Weining
Zhao, Yue
Econometrics
Statistics Theory
62P20 (Primary), 62G20 (Secondary)
High-dimensional covariates often admit linear factor structure. To effectively screen correlated covariates in high-dimension, we propose a conditional variable screening test based on non-parametric regression using neural networks due to their representation power. We ask the question whether individual covariates have additional contributions given the latent factors or more generally a set of variables. Our test statistics are based on the estimated partial derivative of the regression function of the candidate variable for screening and a observable proxy for the latent factors. Hence, our test reveals how much predictors contribute additionally to the non-parametric regression after accounting for the latent factors. Our derivative estimator is the convolution of a deep neural network regression estimator and a smoothing kernel. We demonstrate that when the neural network size diverges with the sample size, unlike estimating the regression function itself, it is necessary to smooth the partial derivative of the neural network estimator to recover the desired convergence rate for the derivative. Moreover, our screening test achieves asymptotic normality under the null after finely centering our test statistics that makes the biases negligible, as well as consistency for local alternatives under mild conditions. We demonstrate the performance of our test in a simulation study and two real world applications.
title Conditional nonparametric variable screening by neural factor regression
topic Econometrics
Statistics Theory
62P20 (Primary), 62G20 (Secondary)
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.10825