Search arXivSearch

arXiv · 2601.10049

Weighted least squares estimation by multivariate-dependent weights for linear regression models

Abstract

Multivariate linear regression models often face the problem of heteroscedasticity caused by multiple explanatory variables. The weighted least squares estimation with univariate-dependent weights has limitations in constructing weight functions. Therefore, this paper proposes a multivariate dependent weighted least squares estimation method. By constructing a linear combination of explanatory variables and maximizing their Spearman rank correlation coefficient with the absolute residual value, combined with maximum likelihood method to depict heteroscedasticity, it can comprehensively reflect the trend of variance changes in the random error and improve the accuracy of the model. This paper demonstrates that the optimal linear combination exponent estimator for heteroscedastic volatility obtained by our algorithm possesses consistency and asymptotic normality. In the simulation experiment, three scenarios of heteroscedasticity were designed, and the comparison showed that the proposed method was superior to the univariate-dependent weighting method in parameter estimation and model prediction. In the real data applications, the proposed method was applied to two real-world datasets about consumer spending in China and housing prices in Boston. From the perspectives of MAE, RSE, cross-validation, and fitting performance, its accuracy and stability were verified in terms of model prediction, interval estimation, and generalization ability. Additionally, the proposed method demonstrated relative advantages in fitting data with large fluctuations. This study provides an effective new approach for dealing with heteroscedasticity in multivariate linear regression.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Lei Huang, Chengyue Liu, Li Wang. 2026-01-15. Weighted least squares estimation by multivariate-dependent weights for linear regression models. https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.10049

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Bias-Correction for Privacy-Protected Spatial Autoregressive Models with Application to Restaurant Network Analysis

Spatial autoregressive (SAR) models and their extensions are important tools for studying network effects. However, with an increasing emphasis on data privacy, data providers often implement protection measures that render standard SAR models inapplicable. In this study, we introduce a privacy-protected SAR model that incorporates noise into both the response and covariates to meet privacy requirements. With noise present in both components, the traditional quasi-maximum likelihood estimator becomes difficult to compute because the likelihood function cannot be directly formulated. To bypass this hurdle, we begin with a pseudo-likelihood approach, initially omitting the noise in the covariates. A Newton-Raphson algorithm is then applied to compute the estimator; however, the estimator is biased. To address this, we propose a bias-corrected Newton-Raphson-type algorithm that simultaneously accounts for noise in both the response and covariates. We further show, under appropriate regularity conditions, that the resulting estimator is consistent and asymptotically normal. To further enhance computational efficiency, we also develop a bias-corrected least squares estimator. Several extensions are discussed, and the finite-sample performance of the proposed methods is evaluated through extensive simulations. We apply the proposed methodology to restaurant transaction data from a third-party payment platform. Our method identifies a statistically significant competitive network effect among restaurants and further reveals meaningful restaurant-customer interaction patterns.

stat.ME

A variational framework for modal estimation

Multivariate mode estimation arises in many statistical problems such as inverse problems, multimodal sampling, and density-based clustering, but becomes challenging in moderate to high dimensions, especially when the underlying density is not directly evaluable. We introduce GERVE (Gibbs-measure Entropy-Regularized Variational Estimation), a sample-based method for estimating multivariate modes by approximating Gibbs distributions directly from samples, without estimating or evaluating the density. GERVE uses Gaussian-mixture variational annealing and natural-gradient optimization, producing a mixture concentrated in high-density regions whose component responsibilities also provide a clustering of the observations. We prove theoretical guarantees in two regimes: as the Gibbs temperature goes to zero, the optimal variational mixture concentrates around the global modes of the population density; at fixed positive temperature, we prove existence, consistency, and asymptotic normality of empirical maximizers and propose a bootstrap procedure for uncertainty quantification. Simulations and a real-data experiment show that GERVE accurately recovers modes and produces meaningful clusters.

stat.ME

Objective Model Prior Probabilities in Variable Selection

For many years it was routine to use equal model prior probabilities in Bayesian model uncertainty analysis. At least twenty years ago it became clear that this was problematic, leading to support of much too large models in the increasingly huge model spaces being considered in genomics and other fields. A popular replacement was to adopt a suggestion of Harold Jeffreys for the variable selection problem in which a total of $k$ possible variables are being considered for inclusion in the model: give the collection of all models containing $d$ variables ($d = 0, . . . , k$) prior probability $1/(k + 1)$ and then divide this prior probability equally among the models in the collection. Many other choices of model prior probabilities that impose severe parsimony have also been introduced. We begin by reviewing the problems with using equal model prior probabilities and then discuss some serious problems with the Jeffreys choice. Finally, we introduce and study a number of objective alternative choices of model prior probabilities, from both numerical and theoretical perspectives.

stat.ME