Efficient Inference for Covariate-adjusted Bradley-Terry Model with Covariate Shift

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Li, Xiudi, Li, Sijia
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866908307976880128
author Li, Xiudi
Li, Sijia
author_facet Li, Xiudi
Li, Sijia
contents We propose a general framework for statistical inference on the overall strengths of players in pairwise comparisons, allowing for potential shifts in the covariate distribution. These covariates capture important contextual information that may impact the winning probability of each player. We measure the overall strengths of players under a target distribution through its Kullback-Leibler projection onto a class of covariate-adjusted Bradley-Terry model. Consequently, our estimands remain well-defined without requiring stringent model assumptions. We develop semiparametric efficient estimators and corresponding inferential procedures that allow for flexible estimation of the nuisance functions. When the conditional Bradley-Terry assumption holds, we propose additional estimators that do not require observing all pairwise comparisons. We demonstrate the performance of our proposed method in simulation studies and apply it to assess the alignment of large language models with human preferences in real-world applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_18256
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Efficient Inference for Covariate-adjusted Bradley-Terry Model with Covariate Shift
Li, Xiudi
Li, Sijia
Methodology
We propose a general framework for statistical inference on the overall strengths of players in pairwise comparisons, allowing for potential shifts in the covariate distribution. These covariates capture important contextual information that may impact the winning probability of each player. We measure the overall strengths of players under a target distribution through its Kullback-Leibler projection onto a class of covariate-adjusted Bradley-Terry model. Consequently, our estimands remain well-defined without requiring stringent model assumptions. We develop semiparametric efficient estimators and corresponding inferential procedures that allow for flexible estimation of the nuisance functions. When the conditional Bradley-Terry assumption holds, we propose additional estimators that do not require observing all pairwise comparisons. We demonstrate the performance of our proposed method in simulation studies and apply it to assess the alignment of large language models with human preferences in real-world applications.
title Efficient Inference for Covariate-adjusted Bradley-Terry Model with Covariate Shift
topic Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.18256