Fitting an Equation to Data Impartially

Fuente: arXiv
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Autor principal: Tofallis, Chris
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Tofallis, Chris
author_facet Tofallis, Chris
contents We consider the problem of fitting a relationship (e.g. a potential scientific law) to data involving multiple variables. Ordinary (least squares) regression is not suitable for this because the estimated relationship will differ according to which variable is chosen as being dependent, and the dependent variable is unrealistically assumed to be the only variable which has any measurement error (noise). We present a very general method for estimating a linear functional relationship between multiple noisy variables, which are treated impartially, i.e. no distinction between dependent and independent variables. The data are not assumed to follow any distribution, but all variables are treated as being equally reliable. Our approach extends the geometric mean functional relationship to multiple dimensions. This is especially useful with variables measured in different units, as it is naturally scale-invariant, whereas orthogonal regression is not. This is because our approach is not based on minimizing distances, but on the symmetric concept of correlation. The estimated coefficients are easily obtained from the covariances or correlations, and correspond to geometric means of associated least squares coefficients. The ease of calculation will hopefully allow widespread application of impartial fitting to estimate relationships in a neutral way.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_02573
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Fitting an Equation to Data Impartially
Tofallis, Chris
Methodology
Econometrics
Statistics Theory
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
Statistical Finance
We consider the problem of fitting a relationship (e.g. a potential scientific law) to data involving multiple variables. Ordinary (least squares) regression is not suitable for this because the estimated relationship will differ according to which variable is chosen as being dependent, and the dependent variable is unrealistically assumed to be the only variable which has any measurement error (noise). We present a very general method for estimating a linear functional relationship between multiple noisy variables, which are treated impartially, i.e. no distinction between dependent and independent variables. The data are not assumed to follow any distribution, but all variables are treated as being equally reliable. Our approach extends the geometric mean functional relationship to multiple dimensions. This is especially useful with variables measured in different units, as it is naturally scale-invariant, whereas orthogonal regression is not. This is because our approach is not based on minimizing distances, but on the symmetric concept of correlation. The estimated coefficients are easily obtained from the covariances or correlations, and correspond to geometric means of associated least squares coefficients. The ease of calculation will hopefully allow widespread application of impartial fitting to estimate relationships in a neutral way.
title Fitting an Equation to Data Impartially
topic Methodology
Econometrics
Statistics Theory
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
Statistical Finance
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.02573