krscvNOMAD computes NOMAD-based (Nonsmooth Optimization by Mesh Adaptive Direct Search, Abramson, Audet, Couture and Le Digabel (2011)) cross-validation directed search for a regression spline estimate of a one (1) dimensional dependent variable on an r-dimensional vector of continuous and nominal/ordinal (factor/ordered) predictors.
degree.max: the maximum degree of the B-spline basis for each of the continuous predictors (default degree.max=10)
segments.max: the maximum segments of the B-spline basis for each of the continuous predictors (default segments.max=10)
degree.min: the minimum degree of the B-spline basis for each of the continuous predictors (default degree.min=0)
segments.min: the minimum segments of the B-spline basis for each of the continuous predictors (default segments.min=1)
cv.df.min: the minimum degrees of freedom to allow when conducting cross-validation (default cv.df.min=1)
complexity: a character string (default complexity="degree-knots") indicating whether model complexity is determined by the degree of the spline or by the number of segments (knots ). This option allows the user to use cross-validation to select either the spline degree (number of knots held fixed) or the number of knots (spline degree held fixed) or both the spline degree and number of knots
knots: a character string (default knots="quantiles") specifying where knots are to be placed. quantiles specifies knots placed at equally spaced quantiles (equal number of observations lie in each segment) and uniform specifies knots placed at equally spaced intervals. If knots="auto", the knot type will be automatically determined by cross-validation
basis: a character string (default basis="additive") indicating whether the additive or tensor product B-spline basis matrix for a multivariate polynomial spline or generalized B-spline polynomial basis should be used. Note this can be automatically determined by cross-validation if cv=TRUE and basis="auto", and is an all or none proposition (i.e. interaction terms for all predictors or for no predictors given the nature of tensor products ). Note also that if there is only one predictor this defaults to basis="additive"
to avoid unnecessary computation as the spline bases are equivalent in this case
cv.func: a character string (default cv.func="cv.ls") indicating which method to use to select smoothing parameters. cv.gcv specifies generalized cross-validation (Craven and Wahba (1979)), cv.aic specifies expected Kullback-Leibler cross-validation (Hurvich, Simonoff, and Tsai (1998)), and cv.ls specifies least-squares cross-validation
degree: integer/vector specifying the degree of the B-spline basis for each dimension of the continuous x
segments: integer/vector specifying the number of segments of the B-spline basis for each dimension of the continuous x
(i.e. number of knots minus one)
lambda: real/vector for the categorical predictors. If it is not NULL, it will be the starting value(s) for lambda
lambda.discrete: if lambda.discrete=TRUE, the bandwidth will be discretized into lambda.discrete.num+1 points and lambda will be chosen from these points
lambda.discrete.num: a positive integer indicating the number of discrete values that lambda can assume - this parameter will only be used when lambda.discrete=TRUE
random.seed: when it is not missing and not equal to 0, the initial points will be generated using this seed when nmulti > 0
max.bb.eval: argument passed to the NOMAD solver (see snomadr for further details)
initial.mesh.size.real: argument passed to the NOMAD solver (see snomadr for further details)
initial.mesh.size.integer: argument passed to the NOMAD solver (see snomadr for further details)
min.mesh.size.real: argument passed to the NOMAD solver (see snomadr for further details)
min.mesh.size.integer: arguments passed to the NOMAD solver (see snomadr for further details)
min.poll.size.real: arguments passed to the NOMAD solver (see snomadr for further details)
min.poll.size.integer: arguments passed to the NOMAD solver (see snomadr for further details)
opts: list of optional arguments to be passed to snomadr
nmulti: integer number of times to restart the process of finding extrema of the cross-validation function from different (random) initial points (default nmulti=0)
tau: if non-null a number in (0,1) denoting the quantile for which a quantile regression spline is to be estimated rather than estimating the conditional mean (default tau=NULL)
weights: an optional vector of weights to be used in the fitting process. Should be NULL or a numeric vector. If non-NULL, weighted least squares is used with weights weights (that is, minimizing sum(w*e^2) ); otherwise ordinary least squares is used.
singular.ok: a logical value (default singular.ok=FALSE) that, when FALSE, discards singular bases during cross-validation (a check for ill-conditioned bases is performed).
Details
krscvNOMAD computes NOMAD-based cross-validation for a regression spline estimate of a one (1) dimensional dependent variable on an r-dimensional vector of continuous and nominal/ordinal (factor/ordered) predictors. Numerical search for the optimal degree/segments/lambda is undertaken using snomadr.
The optimal K/lambda combination is returned along with other results (see below for return values). The method uses kernel functions appropriate for categorical (ordinal/nominal) predictors which avoids the loss in efficiency associated with sample-splitting procedures that are typically used when faced with a mix of continuous and nominal/ordinal (factor/ordered) predictors.
For the continuous predictors the regression spline model employs either the additive or tensor product B-spline basis matrix for a multivariate polynomial spline via the B-spline routines in the GNU Scientific Library (https://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/) and the tensor.prod.model.matrix function.
For the discrete predictors the product kernel function is of the Li-Racine type (see Li and Racine (2007) for details).
Returns
krscvNOMAD returns a crscv object. Furthermore, the function summary supports objects of this type. The returned objects have the following components:
K: scalar/vector containing optimal degree(s) of spline or number of segments
K.mat: vector/matrix of values of K evaluated during search
degree.max: the maximum degree of the B-spline basis for each of the continuous predictors (default degree.max=10)
segments.max: the maximum segments of the B-spline basis for each of the continuous predictors (default segments.max=10)
degree.min: the minimum degree of the B-spline basis for each of the continuous predictors (default degree.min=0)
segments.min: the minimum segments of the B-spline basis for each of the continuous predictors (default segments.min=1)
restarts: number of restarts during search, if any
lambda: optimal bandwidths for categorical predictors
lambda.mat: vector/matrix of optimal bandwidths for each degree of spline
cv.func: objective function value at optimum
cv.func.vec: vector of objective function values at each degree of spline or number of segments in K.mat
References
Abramson, M.A. and C. Audet and G. Couture and J.E. Dennis Jr. and S. Le Digabel (2011), The NOMAD project . Software available at https://www.gerad.ca/nomad.
Craven, P. and G. Wahba (1979), Smoothing Noisy Data With Spline Functions, Numerische Mathematik, 13, 377-403.
Hurvich, C.M. and J.S. Simonoff and C.L. Tsai (1998), Smoothing Parameter Selection in Nonparametric Regression Using anImproved Akaike Information Criterion, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society B, 60, 271-293.
Le Digabel, S. (2011), Algorithm 909: NOMAD: Nonlinear Optimization With The MADS Algorithm . ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software, 37(4):44:1-44:15.
Li, Q. and J.S. Racine (2007), Nonparametric Econometrics: Theory and Practice, Princeton University Press.
Ma, S. and J.S. Racine and L. Yang (2015), Spline Regression in the Presence of Categorical Predictors, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Volume 30, 705-717.
Ma, S. and J.S. Racine (2013), Additive Regression Splines with Irrelevant Categorical and ContinuousRegressors,