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A Comparative Study of the Lasso-type and Heuristic Model Selection Methods

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  • Savin Ivan

    (DFG Research Training Program ‘‘The Economics of Innovative Change”, Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Max Planck Institute of Economics, Bachstrasse 18k, 07743 Jena, Germany)

Abstract

This study presents a first comparative analysis of Lasso-type (Lasso, adaptive Lasso, elastic net) and heuristic subset selection methods. Although the Lasso has shown success in many situations, it has some limitations. In particular, inconsistent results are obtained for pairwise highly correlated predictors. An alternative to the Lasso is constituted by model selection based on information criteria (IC), which remain consistent in the situation mentioned. However, these criteria are hard to optimize due to a discrete search space. To overcome this problem, an optimization heuristic (Genetic Algorithm) is applied. To this end, results of a Monte-Carlo simulation study together with an application to an actual empirical problem are reported to illustrate the performance of the methods.

Suggested Citation

  • Savin Ivan, 2013. "A Comparative Study of the Lasso-type and Heuristic Model Selection Methods," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 233(4), pages 526-549, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:jns:jbstat:v:233:y:2014:i:4:p:526-549
    DOI: 10.1515/jbnst-2013-0406
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    Cited by:

    1. Oleg S. Mariev & Karina M. Nagieva & Viktoria L. Simonova, 2020. "Managing innovation activity factors in Russian regions through econometric modeling," Upravlenets, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 57-69, March.
    2. Ivan Savin & Peter Winker, 2012. "Heuristic Optimization Methods for Dynamic Panel Data Model Selection: Application on the Russian Innovative Performance," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 39(4), pages 337-363, April.
    3. D. Blueschke & I. Savin & V. Blueschke-Nikolaeva, 2020. "An Evolutionary Approach to Passive Learning in Optimal Control Problems," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 56(3), pages 659-673, October.

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    JEL classification:

    • C51 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Construction and Estimation
    • C52 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Evaluation, Validation, and Selection
    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques

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