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Main Authors: Cyffers, Edwige, Mirrokni, Alireza, Mondelli, Marco
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.12249
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author Cyffers, Edwige
Mirrokni, Alireza
Mondelli, Marco
author_facet Cyffers, Edwige
Mirrokni, Alireza
Mondelli, Marco
contents In performative learning, the data distribution reacts to the deployed model - for example, because strategic users adapt their features to game it - which creates a more complex dynamic than in classical supervised learning. One should thus not only optimize the model for the current data but also take into account that the model might steer the distribution in a new direction, without knowing the exact nature of the potential shift. We explore how regularization can help cope with performative effects by studying its impact in high-dimensional ridge regression. We show that, while performative effects worsen the test risk in the population setting, they can be beneficial in the over-parameterized regime where the number of features exceeds the number of samples. We show that the optimal regularization scales with the overall strength of the performative effect, making it possible to set the regularization in anticipation of this effect. We illustrate this finding through empirical evaluations of the optimal regularization parameter on both synthetic and real-world datasets.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_12249
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Optimal Regularization for Performative Learning
Cyffers, Edwige
Mirrokni, Alireza
Mondelli, Marco
Machine Learning
In performative learning, the data distribution reacts to the deployed model - for example, because strategic users adapt their features to game it - which creates a more complex dynamic than in classical supervised learning. One should thus not only optimize the model for the current data but also take into account that the model might steer the distribution in a new direction, without knowing the exact nature of the potential shift. We explore how regularization can help cope with performative effects by studying its impact in high-dimensional ridge regression. We show that, while performative effects worsen the test risk in the population setting, they can be beneficial in the over-parameterized regime where the number of features exceeds the number of samples. We show that the optimal regularization scales with the overall strength of the performative effect, making it possible to set the regularization in anticipation of this effect. We illustrate this finding through empirical evaluations of the optimal regularization parameter on both synthetic and real-world datasets.
title Optimal Regularization for Performative Learning
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.12249