EM Approaches to Nonparametric Estimation for Mixture of Linear Regressions

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Welbaum, Andrew, Qiao, Wanli
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Welbaum, Andrew
Qiao, Wanli
author_facet Welbaum, Andrew
Qiao, Wanli
contents In a mixture of linear regression model, the regression coefficients are treated as random vectors that may follow either a continuous or discrete distribution. We propose two Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithms to estimate this prior distribution. The first algorithm solves a kernelized version of the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation (NPMLE). This method not only recovers continuous prior distributions but also accurately estimates the number of clusters when the prior is discrete. The second algorithm, designed to approximate the NPMLE, targets prior distributions with a density. It also performs well for discrete priors when combined with a post-processing step. We study the convergence properties of both algorithms and demonstrate their effectiveness through simulations and applications to real datasets.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_14890
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle EM Approaches to Nonparametric Estimation for Mixture of Linear Regressions
Welbaum, Andrew
Qiao, Wanli
Methodology
Machine Learning
In a mixture of linear regression model, the regression coefficients are treated as random vectors that may follow either a continuous or discrete distribution. We propose two Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithms to estimate this prior distribution. The first algorithm solves a kernelized version of the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation (NPMLE). This method not only recovers continuous prior distributions but also accurately estimates the number of clusters when the prior is discrete. The second algorithm, designed to approximate the NPMLE, targets prior distributions with a density. It also performs well for discrete priors when combined with a post-processing step. We study the convergence properties of both algorithms and demonstrate their effectiveness through simulations and applications to real datasets.
title EM Approaches to Nonparametric Estimation for Mixture of Linear Regressions
topic Methodology
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.14890